Syrian refugee: Choppers fired at us

           Syrian refugees in Turkey are providing horrifying accounts of the brutal oppression they faced by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. Hasan al-Hamsini, who was shot in the leg, claimed that Assad's forces torched the governing party's headquarters in his town in order to create a pretext for murdering local residents. Two military helicopters were firing at people indiscriminately he said. Another refugee, 31-year-old Muhammad, offered a similar account about the brutality of soldiers. "Troops wearing civilian clothing open fire at me Sunday. A bullet hit my hand and paralyzed three of my fingers," he said. "Saturday we buried our dead, and after we finished security forces opened fire." "They fired at us from all directions. I saw many bodies and tried to hide," he said, denying that any armed groups resorted to violence against security forces, as Assad's regime claimed in recent days. "The last thing I remember is a sniper shooting at me," said Salim, a 28-year-old laborer who also escaped to Turkey. "I tried to warn my friends, but another bullet hit my arm and I lost consciousness." Other Syrians who crossed the border to turkey say that Syrian media outlets are portraying an entirely different picture than actual events on the ground. "Lying, lying, lying – Syrian media are lying!" chanted Syrians in a video posted on YouTube Wednesday. Meanwhile, the United States Security Council was scheduled to convene Wednesday in an effort to imposed sanctions against Assad's regime, marking the most decisive international response to the carnage in Syria thus far. (22,00)