Sweeping arrests in Syria after the army rolls

 Artillery fire and bombing irritated - a town in the Centre of the Syria Sunday and killed a 12 year-old boy, as the autocratic President Bashar Assad has expanded its military crackdown on an uprising by seven weeks by sending tanks and reinforcements in key sectorsactivists said.

The activists also said authorities arrested a 10-year-old boy, apparently to punish his parents and filed charges against figures of the opposition who suffers from cancer.

The exact circumstances of the death of the boy in the city of Homs were blurred. Like several other hot, the Government responded to events it by sending tanks and troops to seal it off and leave even more cutting phone service isolated.

The continuous repression suggests that the Assad regime is determined to put an end to the revolt by force and intimidation, despite climbing rapidly international outrage and a number of deaths that has overcome 580 civilians since unrest began in mid-Marchrights groups function.

The Government challenged the civil number of victims and said 100 soldiers have been killed.

Sunday, said SANA State News Agency the security forces were "armed terrorist groups" in the cities of Homs, Banias and Dara and six Syrian soldiers, including three policemen, were killed in clashes.

The report also said 10 Syrian workers who were on their way to the Syria, the Lebanon were killed in an ambush by terrorist armed groups on the road to Damascus-Homs.

The use of their overwhelming force to crush an uprising has worked for close ally of the Syria Iran when he represses the 2009 green revolution sparked by a disputed presidential election. He also worked for the nation in the Gulf of Bahrain.

The United States has imposed sanctions on three senior Syrian officials and intelligence of the Syria and revolutionary guard agency Iran on law enforcement. The European Union should impose sanctions on the Syrian officials soon, and the United Nations, said Saturday, and he sends a Syria team to investigate the situation.

Hundreds of Syrians said SANA demonstrated Sunday opposite the Embassy of the United States in Damascus to protest against the "U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of the country."

The military and security forces carried out arrest sweeps and posted Sharpshooters on rooftops in homes across the country Sunday, including Homs, the coastal town of Banias and the city of the South of Darawhere begins the uprising, said activists.

Hundreds were arrested at Banias, a 10 year old boy in what appeared to be an approach to punish the parents of the child, said Rami Abdul Rahman, Director of the Syrian human rights observatory.

"Banias is a ghost town today, it is the vacuum and completely isolated from the rest of the Syria," said Ammar Qurabi of the national organization of the Syria for human rights. "There is a de facto curfew, and people are not out", he said.

Said Qurabi also tanks entered three villages near Dara - Tafas, Atman and Daael.

Dara, the security forces allowed out for a few hours to buy essentials but then imposed a curfew. Thousands were arrested.

"The prisons are full, they are now putting prisoners in schools and other public buildings," he said.

Also Sunday, Qurabi said Syrian judicial authorities have officially filed charges against Riad Seif, opposition figures and former legislator who was a keen critical of the regime during the uprising.