Tanks shell Syria’s third-largest city in attempt to crush revolt

Syrian troops used tanks to shell residential areas of the country’s third biggest city as the government attempted to crush the revolt against President Bashar Assad.

Heavy gunfire was heard as at least three residential areas were hit by tank fire in the besieged city of Homs, which has seen some of the largest anti-government demonstrations in recent weeks.

It marked a sharp escalation in the violence which human rights groups estimate has claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 civilians since pro-democracy protests began on March 18.

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Syria is determined to crush the uprising that began in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, and Mr Assad has dispatched army troops backed by tanks to Homs and other cities and villages across the country.

Activists said three protesters were killed yesterday when government forces fired on demonstrations in Jassem, one of a cluster of villages near Daraa.

The government’s heavy-handed response has triggered new international sanctions.

The United Nations Security Council had agreed in principle last Friday on a first wave of sanctions, aiming to invoke them later in May unless attacks on civilians in Syria were halted.

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But the continuing scale of violence triggered swifter action, and also now rules out any early resumption of stalled European Union trade talks with Syria. Further sanctions, including the withdrawal of aid programmes, are being considered.

The European Union has decided to impose sanctions on 13 Syrian officials, prohibiting them from travelling anywhere in the 27-nation bloc. United States sanctions target the assets of two of Mr Assad’s relatives and another top Syrian official. But neither EU nor US sanctions affect Mr Assad himself.

On Tuesday Britain called on the government to give humanitarian groups access to areas where protesters have clashed with security forces after the UN and Red Cross were prevented from entering Daraa.

Syrian human rights groups said security forces killed 18 people yesterday, including an eight-year-old boy. Ammar Qurabi of the National Organisation for Human Rights, said 13 people were killed in tank shelling on a village outside Daraa. Five others were killed in Homs.

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Human rights activist Najati Tayara said: “Homs is shaking with the sound of explosions from tank shelling and heavy machine-guns,” .

The Syrian government insisted it was pursuing “armed terrorist gangs”, and blamed them for the deaths of two soldiers.

It has not been possible to verify the accounts of attacks or the death toll because foreign journalists have not been allowed to enter Syria.

The state news agency, Sana, said troops and security agents had “arrested dozens of wanted men and seized large quantities of weapons and ammunition in Bab Amr”, as well as in Deraa.

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It cited sources as saying that one soldier was killed and four were injured in Bab Amr, while one was killed and another injured in rural Deraa. A number of “terrorists” were killed and injured, it added.

Sana also said the government had formed a commission to draft a new law on legislative elections within the next two weeks.

The army continued operations in the coastal town of Baniyas, where at least 300 people have been arrested since Saturday. A leading member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, Mazen Adi, was detained in Damascus, while political activist Wael al-Qaq has been arrested on the Lebanese-Syrian border

The UK Foreign Office called the repression “shocking” and urged the government to change its behaviour.

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