Syria tanks "head for the city of Homs.

activists say security forces carried out mass arrests in Deraa reservoirs are down for the central Syrian city of Homs, say local activists, after anti-Government protests were held last night.

Some 1,000 people chanted slogans in the southern town of Deraa, where troops are rounded hundreds of men in raids from House to House.

Across the country, 2,843 people are confirmed as inmate. Activists say the total may be 8,000 and that some have been subjected to torture.

The United States calls the "barbarian" repression

Rights groups say about 560 people were killed across the country in demonstrations against the dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Government says that the demonstrators are militant criminals and not - as evidence of soil suggests - ordinary civilians calling for political reform.

The protests, which began March 15, pose the most serious challenge to four decades of rule by the Assad family in one of the Arab world more repressive and tightly controlled country.

Foreign journalists are barred to the Syria, and reports cannot be verified.

Cities under siege

Activists Homs told the BBC that the security forces had inflamed the city inside and that army tanks were heading towards it.

The deployment in Homs comes a day after Syrian tanks and troops have been surrounding the nearby coastal city of Baniyas.

Deraa, the city of the South, where protests were launched in mid-March, besieged since the end of week.

On Wednesday, there were fresh reports of gunfire and new arrests of men aged 15 to 40. More than 800 protesters have so far been rounded in Deraa only.

The army is still not allow anyone in the city, and the reserves of food and medicine are running low, residents said. Lines of communication are still down, but electricity has been restored in most areas, they added.

On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the use of tanks, arbitrary arrests and power reductions Deraa has been "quite barbaric and amounts to collective punishment of innocent civilians".

The authorities say that they found rebel caches of weapons in Deraa. But the protesters insist that their movement is completely peaceful.

Despite repression, Syrian Government continue to protest in several towns and villages.

In the capital, students at the University of Damascus held a sit-in at the Faculty of economic sciences.

They issued a statement condemning "the massacres, assassinations and arrests against peaceful demonstrators."

Allegations of torture

On Tuesday, a demonstration of late-night by 1,000 students at the University of Aleppo - in the second city of Syria - is dismantled by security forces with tear gas and fired live bullets gas, say reliable sources.

No injuries were reported, but dozens of students are being arrested, their mobile phones, and confiscated notebooks, sources say.

Syrian men are loaves of bread at a demonstration to Baniyas Tuesday

Most evenings and events are planned in the coming days.

Amnesty International and many of the protesters themselves, say that the detainees are subjected to beatings and torture.

"The use of unjustified lethal force, arbitrary detention and torture appear to be the desperate actions of a Government that is intolerant of dissent and must be immediately halted," said Amnesty official Philip Luther.

Last week hundreds of members of Mr. Assad decision of that party Baath resigned in protest against the repression.

European Nations have asked for sanctions against the regime of President Assad. Washington has already strengthened its sanctions against the Syrian officials.