Syrian tanks enter coastal town in new crackdown

Syrian tanks in a city coastal Mediterranean Saturday in an escalation of the repression by President Bashar al-Assad, just a day after clashes with the demonstrators hostile to the Government left at least 30 deaths in all the countries, activists said.

Details on the deployment of troops in Banias, which saw weeks of demonstrations demanding a change of regime, were rare as lines of telephone and communication with the city and the surrounding area have been cut.

But activists in contact with the inhabitants of the city, said soldiers deployed to Banias before dawn.

Activist said tanks in the area of the sea and were stationed in at least three villages Sunni just to the South of Banias, adding that the soldiers were research door to door and arrests in the district of al-Marqab about a mile Southeast of the city and in the villages of Bayda and Basatin more to the South.

Banias, which has a major oil refinery and is the main point of Syrian oil export, has a potentially explosive mixture of religious groups and sects. It is divided between Sunni Muslims and Alawites - the sect of the ruling Assad family and numerous personalities.

Several other activists reported off the coast of the Banias gunboats. They said that the city, which had become a main focus of anti-Government protests, is now fully besieged. The talks of activists on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The deployment of Banias came a few hours after the clashes Friday with anti-government demonstrators killed 30 people across the country, according to a rights activist Syrian leader.

In this image of citizen journalism on a mobile phone and acquired by the AP, hostile demonstrators to the Syrian Government meet in the coastal town of Banias, Syria, Friday, may 6, 2011. The forces of Syrian security have opened fire on the demonstrators Friday, killing at least 16 people as thousands joined protests across the country, calling to end the regime of President Bashar Assad, witnesses and activists said. (AP photo) Close

The move raises fears of an operation military large-scale Banias, similar to that conducted in the southern city of Dara flash point.

Dara, near the Jordanian border, has been under siege since April 25, when the Syrian authorities cut electricity lines and the telephone and deployment of tanks and snipers to crush dissent there.

The army announced the end of an 11-day military operation Thursday, but residents have since said troops still remain in the streets. Some 50 people have been reported, killed at Dara in the course of last 10 days.

Syria uprising was triggered by the arrest of adolescents who scribbled anti-Government graffiti on a wall in Dara. Demonstrations quickly spread across the nation of some 23 million people.

More than 580 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since the start of the revolt, say rights groups.

The United Nations, said Saturday he sent a team in Syria to investigate the situation, and the European Union should impose sanctions on Syrian officials next week. The two actions are important blows dEl-Assad, a British reformer educated, self-styled, who tried to bring back the Syria in his 11 years in power integrate global.

In Washington, the spokesman for the Department of State Mark Toner said that to the United States urging the Syrian Government to stop of "violence against innocent citizens who are simply demonstrating and trying to state their aspirations for a more democratic future."

Protests Friday, extends over the nation, the capital of the Mediterranean coast and the arid Northeast.

Rallies were held in major areas, including the capital Damascus and its suburbs, Banias on the coast and Qamishli in the Northeast.

An activist of the human rights said Associated Press that 30 people were killed Friday, the demonstrators.

Media State the Syria said 10 soldiers and police officers were killed in the central city of Homs and 25 others were injured in Hama.

The bloodshed was the last spasm in what became a weekly cycle of mass followed by a swift crackdown and deadly protests.

But pressure was mounting on El-Assad, which emphasizes that the disorders are a foreign conspiracy carried out by "terrorist groups".

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Zeina Karam is available at http://twitter.com/zkaram