Syrian troops swept into new villages in the northwest on Thursday amid anti-regime protests in the country’s second city Aleppo, activists said.

Around 60 tanks and armored personnel carriers rumbled into two villages in the countryside of Idlib, said Rami Abdul Rahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Iran and Syria "remain leading state sponsors of terrorism," top U.S. counterterrorism official John Brennan said on Wednesday while introducing a new American anti-terrorism strategy.

"Hezbollah and Hamas are terrorist organizations that threaten Israel and our interests in the Middle East. We will therefore continue to use the full range of our foreign policy tools to prevent these regimes and terrorist organizations from endangering our national security," Brennan said.

Washington said Wednesday it was setting sanctions on Syria's Political Security Directorate for human rights abuses, citing two incidents when its agents shot down protesters in March and April.

Also named in the sanctions were the country's air force intelligence chief, Major General Jamil Hassan, and Iran's national police for "providing support to the Syrian regime."

Syrian troops killed seven civilians on Wednesday when they stormed two villages in the northwest to quash dissent against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a rights activist said.

The latest military action came as hundreds of lawyers staged a sit-in in the second city of Aleppo calling for freedom and the release of prisoners and regime loyalists held a counter-protest, activists said.

The March 14 General Secretariat stated on Wednesday that the ongoing talks, “led by the Syria and Hizbullah,” to draft a government policy statement are aimed at breaking Lebanon’s commitment with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The March 14 camp stresses that it will firmly confront any attempt to escape Lebanon’s international commitments.”

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly stated on Wednesday that Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s recent statements against the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon are aimed at “deflecting attention away from internal tensions in the party.”

She said after holding talks with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun: “We discussed the new government and I repeated the U.S. decision which is we will judge the new government by its composition, its ministerial statement, and the actions it takes.”

Dozens of tanks and other armored vehicles entered the Syrian village of al-Rami, in the province of Idlib, on Tuesday, Rami Abdul Rahman, president of the Syrian Observatory on Human Rights said.

Separately, other anti-regime militants said Syrian forces had opened fire there and set off flares, which could be seen from the neighboring village of Irm al-Joz.

The Syrian regime's authorization of an opposition meeting is a "move in the right direction," but President Bashar al-Assad still needs to go further, the United States said Tuesday.

About 160 dissidents, several of whom have spent years in jail as political prisoners, gathered Monday, prompting the U.S. State Department to say it was "pleased to see the opposition has been allowed some breathing space."

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that the committee drafting a government policy statement will likely complete its work this week.

He revealed after the Change and Reform’s weekly meeting: “It will be finalized this week and the clause on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will be the final issue of discussion.”

A U.S. lawmaker strongly opposed to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and the Libyan conflict is on a "fact-finding" visit to Lebanon and Syria, his office said Monday.

Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich held talks Monday in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported.