Russian President Vladimir Putin told visiting Syria peace mediator Kofi Annan on Tuesday that he would "do everything" to support the U.N.-Arab League envoy's plan to end the conflict.

"From the very start, from the first steps, we supported and continue to support your efforts aimed at restoring civil peace," Putin told Annan at the start of their Kremlin meeting.

A Syrian general and several soldiers crossed into Turkey on Monday, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse, bringing the number of defections by generals from Bashar Assad's embattled regime to at least 18.

Turkey has become home to dozens of defectors who have crossed the border and formed the Free Syrian Army in opposition to Assad's regime.

Residents of Treimsa are adamant: government troops and their proxy shabiha militia slaughtered hundreds in their village last week to push Syria into a religious war.

Despite government assertions its troops targeted armed rebels and not residents during the military offensive, hatred is palpable everywhere in this small central Syrian village.

The Iraqi government on Tuesday urged its citizens in strife-hit Syria to return home because of "increasing attacks" on them and warned Turkey against "any violations" of its territory and airspace.

"Iraqis are guests who live temporarily in Syria and the Iraqi government calls on them to return to the country," government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said.

The Muslim Brotherhood urged the Syrian people on Tuesday to rise up and back rebels locked in a "decisive battle" against the troops of President Bashar Assad in Damascus.

The influential Islamist group said the people must seize "this historic moment" by providing support for rebels who are fighting troops in several parts of Damascus for the third consecutive day.

Filipino workers trying to flee the unrest in Syria are being charged up to $10,000 by their employers before they can leave, the foreign department in Manila said on Tuesday.

Syrian employers are demanding that they be refunded large amounts they paid for the deployment of Philippine staff, foreign department spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters.

Syrian rebels declared the battle to "liberate" Damascus has begun as heavy fighting raged across the capital on Tuesday and Russia said it will do everything to support a tattered peace plan.

The proclamation by the Free Syrian Army came as U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said the 16-month-old crisis, which is increasingly being described as a civil war, was at a "critical time."

Syrian refugees in Jordan urged British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Tuesday to "get rid of" Syrian President Bashar Assad, as the official visited this Jordanian border town.

"We do not want food or water, we do not want money. We just want you to get rid of Bashar," some of them chanted as Hague and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh toured Ramtha's Bashabsheh housing complex, a military-guarded compound that houses around 1,000 Syrian refugees.

Syrian President Bashar Assad will use chemical weapons against opposition forces and may have already deployed them, Nawaf Fares, the first Syrian ambassador to defect, told the BBC on Monday.

Fares, the most prominent politician to defect since the uprising against Assad began, insisted that the president's days were numbered but warned he would be prepared "to eradicate the entire Syrian people" to remain in power.

The al-Qaida terrorist network has offered a $300,000 reward for the assassination of Speaker Nabih Berri and Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji, al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said that al-Qaida members in Lebanon were offered by the network’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri $150,000 for killing Berri and another $150,000 for assassinating Qahwaji through a “missile ambush” of their motorcades.