BEIRUT/AMMAN: Another Arab League deadline passed Sunday as Syria said it was still negotiating with the league over the bloc’s request to send observers into the country, as tightening sanctions by Arab and other nations fail to halt the eight-month crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Meanwhile, at least a dozen Syrian secret police have defected from an intelligence compound, activists said Sunday, in what appeared to be the first major desertion from a service that has acted as a pillar of President Bashar Assad’s rule.

A gunfight broke out overnight after the defectors fled the Air Force Intelligence complex in the center of Idlib city, 280 kilometers northwest of Damascus, and 10 people on both sides were killed or wounded, the activists said.

One activist in Idlib, who gave his name as Alaa, said army defectors based in the nearby Jabal al-Zawiya region were seen near the secret police compound and helped the deserters escape in what appeared to be a coordinated operation.

“Armored vehicles from an army barracks outside Idlib were called in to help defend the compound. The sound of AK-47s and machineguns echoed till dawn,” he said.

New violence killed at least nine people Sunday, including a female university professor and a father and his three children in central Homs, opposition activists said. The Local Coordination Committees activist network put the death toll from violence Sunday at 22, but the number could not be immediately confirmed by other activist groups.

Separately, activists said Sunday a U.S.-born Syrian blogger has been arrested at the Syrian-Jordanian border while on her way to attend a workshop for advocates of press freedoms in the Arab world.

A statement issued by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression said Razan Ghazzawi was arrested by police and immigration officials at the border. She was on her way to Amman to attend the conference as a representative of the center.

Syrian nonviolence activists have also called for a general strike to kick off on Dec. 11, according to a document obtained by The Daily Star Sunday.

Arab leaders had given Syria a new deadline of Sunday to respond to the League’s peace plan, which calls for the admission of observers to ensure compliance with a government cease-fire. They also renewed threats to push for U.N. involvement if Damascus balks.

Syria’s failure to meet a Nov. 25 deadline to allow in observers drew Arab League sanctions, including a ban on dealings with the country’s central bank. Together with sanctions from the United States, the European Union and Turkey, the Arab League’s penalties are expected to deal significant damage to Syria’s economy and may undercut the regime’s authority.

The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East said Assad is responsible for deepening the sectarian division in Syria.

Jeffrey Feltman said Assad is pegging his ruling Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, against other sects and implementing his “own prophecy, which is moving Syria into more chaos and a civil war.”

Feltman said Washington has been in touch with Syrian Christians to prod them “not to stand on the side of the attacker,” but declined to elaborate. Many among Syria’s Christian and other minorities have sided with Assad’s regime, fearing they would be targeted if the Sunni majority takes over.

Speaking in Amman, Feltman also told reporters the U.S. has “evidence” that Iran and the militant Lebanese Hezbollah have agents in Syria to bolster Assad’s waning regime – a charge both have repeatedly denied.

Faced with Sunday’s new Arab League deadline, Syria signaled it still might be willing to comply with the League’s plan, saying its objections were simply a matter of details.

“Messages are being exchanged between Syria and the Arab League to reach a certain vision that would facilitate the mission of observers in Syria while preserving Syrian interests and sovereignty,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told reporters in Damascus.

Syria, which has already been suspended from the 22-member League, may be playing for time while its crackdown continues.

Qatar’s prime minister said Saturday during a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in the Gulf country’s capital, Doha, that he expected Syrian envoys to sign an agreement Sunday.

Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr al-Thani said failure to reach an agreement may lead to U.N. involvement in the Syrian crisis, although he did not spell out what that meant.

Arab ministers have continued to meet to work out enforcement of the existing sanctions package. Some sanctions – the central bank ban, a halt to Arab government funding of projects in Syria and a freeze of Syrian government assets – went into effect immediately.

Saturday’s meeting approved a list of 19 Syrian officials subject to a travel ban. Among them are Assad’s younger brother Maher, who is believed to be in command of much of the crackdown, as well as Cabinet ministers, intelligence chiefs and security officers. The list does not include the president himself.

The Syrian government said Sunday it was suspending a 2004 free-trade agreement with Turkey in response to the penalties imposed by its former close ally. As a reciprocal measure, all Turkish imports would be subject to customs fees.

Turkey’s Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan criticized the move Sunday, saying the Syrian government was “punishing its own people, its own industrialists, exporters and entrepreneurs.”