Switzerland Adds 18 Syrian Officials to Travel Ban List

Switzerland added 18 senior Syrian military and interior ministry officials to a travel ban list Friday, as activists said security forces killed at least 14 anti-regime protesters.

The Swiss list now has 74 names on it, a statement said, while adding Syria's Commercial Bank to a separate list, now 19 long, of sanctioned firms.

In September, Switzerland tightened its sanctions against Syria, halting new investments in the oil sector and stopping the delivery of new coins and notes to its central bank.

It has also placed an embargo on exports to Syria of military equipment the government may use in suppressing its citizens.

Syrian assets frozen in Switzerland are worth about 45 million francs (36 million euros, $49 million).

Activists said at least 24 people, four of them children, were killed as Syrian security forces opened fire in several cities on Friday -- most of them in the restive region of Homs.

A crackdown on protests in Syria by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has killed more than 4,000 people since mid-March, according to U.N. figures.