Syria's Muslim Brotherhood would accept Turkish intervention

A leader of Syria's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood said on Thursday the Syrian people would accept military intervention by Turkey, rather than Western countries, to protect them from President Bashar al-Assad's security forces, Reuters reports on Thursday.

Mohammad Riad Shaqfa, who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia, told a news conference in Istanbul that the international community should isolate Assad's government to encourage people to press their struggle to end more than four decades of Assad family rule.

Hundreds of people have been killed this month, one of the bloodiest periods in the revolt since it began last March. The United Nations estimates that 3,500 civilians have been killed in the past eight months in a crackdown on the protests.