EU Urges Assad to Stop Crackdown, Slams 'Barbarism'

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime on Tuesday to stop its violent crackdown on protesters and release those arrested.

Ashton "expresses her continued deep concern about the violence perpetrated by the Syrian regime against peaceful demonstrators, human rights activists, and the Syrian people at large," her spokesman said in a statement.

"She renews her unequivocal condemnation of the brutal repression," the spokesman said, one day after EU states agreed in principle to ban oil imports from Syria, a measure that is expected to be formally adopted this week.

In Syria on Tuesday, activists said security forces killed seven people when they opened fire in several towns to disperse protesters who emerged from mosques on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr feast.

Ashton's statement did not mention the latest incident but she condemned an attack last week against Syria's leading political cartoonist, Ali Ferzat, who said he was beaten by four men.

"Many other activists, independent minds and human rights defenders have been subject to similar acts of barbarism and disregard for human rights, including alleged instances of torture," Ashton's spokesman said.

Thousands remain in detention without charges, the EU statement said.

An attack against the Rifai mosque in Damascus's western quarter of Kafar Susseh on Saturday was "yet another illustration of the reckless and indiscriminate violence by the Syrian security," he said.

"All such attacks and the broad repression must immediately stop, detained protesters be released and a way opened toward the fulfillment of the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people," the spokesman said.