eshrag
05-09-2011, 10:12 AM
http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/31687?ns=guardian&pageName=Syrian+tanks+move+into+city+of+Homs%3AArt icle%3A1555400&ch=World+news&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Syria+%28News%29%2CArab+and+Middle+East+unrest+ %28News%29%2CBashar+Al-Assad%2CProtest+%28News%29%2CMiddle+East+%28News%2 9%2CWorld+news&c5=Unclassified%2CPolicy+Society%2CNot+commerciall y+useful&c6=Reuters&c7=11-May-09&c8=1555400&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=World+news&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FSyria
12-year-old boy reported killed as residents describe hearing gunfire and shelling
President Bashar al-Assad has sent tanks deep into Syria's third city, Homs, escalating a military campaign to crush a seven-week-old uprising against his autocratic rule.
Syrians demanding political freedom and an end to corruption have held weeks of what they say are peaceful demonstrations in the face of government repression, despite a civilian death toll that has reached 800, according to the Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah.
On Sunday, residents in Homs said they heard machine-gun fire and shelling as troops made their first incursion into residential areas of the city of 1 million people, 100 miles north of Damascus.
At least one person, a 12-year-old child, was killed when tanks and troops went into the Bab Sebaa, Bab Amro and Tal al-Sour districts of Homs during the night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The areas have been under total siege since yesterday," the organisation said. "There is a total blackout on the numbers of dead and injured. Telecommunications and electricity are repeatedly being cut in those districts."
Elsewhere, a witness said security forces killed at least two unarmed demonstrators when they fired on a night rally in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor.
Assad has made clear he will not tolerate dissent or risk losing the tight control his family has had over the country for the past 41 years.
The pro-democracy upheaval that began in Deraa on 18 March, inspired by similar revolts across the Arab world, intensified on Friday across Hauran, an agricultural belt bordering Jordan to the south and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the west.
In the south, tanks swept into several towns on Sunday. A man was killed when security forces broke into his home in the southern town of Tafas, a rights campaigner in the region said.
A Jordanian statesman, Adnan Abu Oudeh, said two models had emerged during the Arab democratic revolution. "Egypt and Tunisia, where there is an established concept of the state and of the army as an institution of the state … and the Libyan and Yemeni model.
"Syria belongs to the latter," said Abu Oudeh, who is a board member of the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict resolution group.
An opposition figure said that even if the half a million members of Syria's army and other security forces, which are led by officers of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs, continued to obey the 45-year-old president, he would not be able to crush the growing popular hostility to his rule.
"The shocks of the military campaign are being absorbed," he said. "We have seen that as soon as the army withdraws or lessens its presence in one area to crush people elsewhere, protests erupt in the area the forces had left.
Assad is using Israeli tactics, but will not be able to occupy all of Syria with his loyalists."
Protesters are demanding political freedoms, an end to corruption and the departure of Assad.
Syrian authorities have blamed the protests on "armed terrorist groups" they say are operating in Deraa, Banias, Homs and other parts of the country.
The official state news agency said an "armed gang", a term used of opponents of the government, had ambushed a bus near Homs and shot dead 10 civilian workers returning from Lebanon.
Syria (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/syria)
Arab and Middle East unrest (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/arab-and-middle-east-protests)
Bashar Al-Assad (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bashar-al-assad)
Protest (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/protest)
Middle East (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast)
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أكثر... (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/09/syrian-tanks-homs-crackdown)
12-year-old boy reported killed as residents describe hearing gunfire and shelling
President Bashar al-Assad has sent tanks deep into Syria's third city, Homs, escalating a military campaign to crush a seven-week-old uprising against his autocratic rule.
Syrians demanding political freedom and an end to corruption have held weeks of what they say are peaceful demonstrations in the face of government repression, despite a civilian death toll that has reached 800, according to the Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah.
On Sunday, residents in Homs said they heard machine-gun fire and shelling as troops made their first incursion into residential areas of the city of 1 million people, 100 miles north of Damascus.
At least one person, a 12-year-old child, was killed when tanks and troops went into the Bab Sebaa, Bab Amro and Tal al-Sour districts of Homs during the night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The areas have been under total siege since yesterday," the organisation said. "There is a total blackout on the numbers of dead and injured. Telecommunications and electricity are repeatedly being cut in those districts."
Elsewhere, a witness said security forces killed at least two unarmed demonstrators when they fired on a night rally in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor.
Assad has made clear he will not tolerate dissent or risk losing the tight control his family has had over the country for the past 41 years.
The pro-democracy upheaval that began in Deraa on 18 March, inspired by similar revolts across the Arab world, intensified on Friday across Hauran, an agricultural belt bordering Jordan to the south and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the west.
In the south, tanks swept into several towns on Sunday. A man was killed when security forces broke into his home in the southern town of Tafas, a rights campaigner in the region said.
A Jordanian statesman, Adnan Abu Oudeh, said two models had emerged during the Arab democratic revolution. "Egypt and Tunisia, where there is an established concept of the state and of the army as an institution of the state … and the Libyan and Yemeni model.
"Syria belongs to the latter," said Abu Oudeh, who is a board member of the International Crisis Group, an independent conflict resolution group.
An opposition figure said that even if the half a million members of Syria's army and other security forces, which are led by officers of the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs, continued to obey the 45-year-old president, he would not be able to crush the growing popular hostility to his rule.
"The shocks of the military campaign are being absorbed," he said. "We have seen that as soon as the army withdraws or lessens its presence in one area to crush people elsewhere, protests erupt in the area the forces had left.
Assad is using Israeli tactics, but will not be able to occupy all of Syria with his loyalists."
Protesters are demanding political freedoms, an end to corruption and the departure of Assad.
Syrian authorities have blamed the protests on "armed terrorist groups" they say are operating in Deraa, Banias, Homs and other parts of the country.
The official state news agency said an "armed gang", a term used of opponents of the government, had ambushed a bus near Homs and shot dead 10 civilian workers returning from Lebanon.
Syria (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/syria)
Arab and Middle East unrest (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/arab-and-middle-east-protests)
Bashar Al-Assad (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bashar-al-assad)
Protest (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/protest)
Middle East (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast)
guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk) © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions (http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html) | More Feeds (http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds)
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أكثر... (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/09/syrian-tanks-homs-crackdown)