The Syrian military's crackdown on protestors extended toward the northern border with Turkey Wednesday (August 10th), one day after President Bashar Assad met with a Turkish envoy in Damascus, wire agencies reported.

Early Wednesday morning, a dozen tanks and 10 buses of soldiers arrived in the northern towns of Taftanaz and Sermin, 30km from the Turkish border, according to a statement released by the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group said at least one woman was killed.

Also on Wednesday, Syrian security forces reportedly captured the eastern city of Deir a-Zor following an offensive that included artillery and heavy gunfire, activists said.

On Tuesday Assad told Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu during a two-hour meeting in Damascus that security forces "will not stop pursuing terrorist groups in order to protect the stability of Syria and the security of its citizens," the official SANA agency reported.

Upon Davutoglu's return to Ankara, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday implored the Syrian government to end the military actions against peaceful demonstrators.

"In Syria, the state is pointing guns at its own people," Erdogan said. "Turkey's message to Assad is very clear: Stop all kinds of violence and bloodshed."

Also on Tuesday, the National Organization for Human Rights said that 30 people were killed near Hama and the Turkish border as a Syrian military offensive began in villages north of Hama.