United States Urges Citizens to Leave Syria 'Immediately'

In an exercise of caution, the United States Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens to depart Syria immediately, and Turkey's foreign ministry likewise beseeched its citizens to find return flights home through Saudi Arabia in order to avoid the mounting pandemonium going on in Syria.

The U.S. Embassy continues to urge U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available, a statement posted on the Embassy's Web site and issued to the American community in Syria said Wednesday.

The number of airlines serving Syria has decreased significantly since the summer, while many of those airlines remaining have reduced their number of flights.

The warning followed an announcement in Washington this week that Ambassador Robert Ford would not return to Syria this month as planned, indicating concerns over his safety as Syrian President Bashir al-Assad continues to ignore increased international pressure to cease a brutal crackdown on his people, The Associated Press reported.

Citing credible personal threats, President Barack Obama and his administration quietly pulled Ford out of Syria last month.

The warnings from the U.S. and Turkey come as Syrian security, in the last two days, carried out raids in the rebellious areas in the center and the south of the country Wednesday, where at least six people died, bringing the two-day death toll to 34, activists said.

On Tuesday, two activist groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, documented the deaths of at least six people who were reported killled on Tuesday in the central cities of Hama and Homs, the eastern city of Deir el-Zour.

Roughly 3,500 people have been reported killed in the military crackdown on the uprising since March, according to the UN.

Earlier this month, the 22-member Arab League suspended Syria's membership over the unending bloodshed and Syria's failure to comply with a peace plan it signed with the League; the League is also considering imposing economic and political sanctions on Assad's government.

The committee's first-ever resolution on Syria's human rights violations has sent a clear message that it does not accept abuse and death as a legitimate path to retaining power, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said in a statement.