Tanks shell Syrian city, confident Assad

AMMAN  - the army tanks shelled a residential neighbourhood in Homs on Wednesday, a rights activist said in the third city of Syria, who has emerged as the most populous of defiance against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"Homs shaking with the noise of explosions of tank shelling and heavy machine guns, in the neighbourhood of Bab Amro" said Najafi Tayara.

Tayara said that a Syrian Christian was killed by snipers in his head in the neighbouring district of Inshaat, adding that the authorities are trying to raise sectarian tensions to undermine the pro-democracy demonstrations.

He said that Maher Naqour was shot he was standing outside his house in an area where snipers were deployed on roofs in a military sweep.

No there was no immediate comment from the Syrian authorities, who banned most international media of the Syria.

Assad initially responded to the unrest, the most serious problem of its right-of-way for 11 years in power, with promises of reform and cautions that the demonstrators were serving a foreign plot to sow sectarian strife. He was granted citizenship to stateless Kurds and lifted the State of emergency in 48 years.

But he also sent the army to crush the dissent in Deraa where people have first the streets on March 18 and other cities, then stating that he would not risk losing tight control, his family took place over the Syria for the past 41 years.

A cousin of the President said that the Assad family did not capitulate. "We will be sitting here." We call it a struggle to the end... They need to know when we suffer, us will not only suffer "Rami Makhlouf, said the New York Times."

Makhlouf, a Tycoon in the start of the quarantine, which owns several monopolies and his brother, a police chief secret under US sanctions since 2007 for corruption.

Activist rights Suhair al-Atassi said that a demonstration erupted Tuesday in Homs, despite a heavy security crackdown, tanks several districts Sunday and three civilians were killed.

"This regime plays a lost card in advance by sending tanks in cities and besieging them." Syrians have seen their compatriots blood spilled. They will never return to be non-personnes, "she told Reuters."

Demonstrators shouted the name of Makhlouf as a symbol of corruption in a country that has faced severe water shortages and unemployment ranging from estimates of Government of 10 per cent with independent estimates of 25 percent.

Makhlouf was a businessman whose companies provide jobs for thousands of Syrians.

ERDOGAN POSTERS IN BANIAS

Security forces have released 300 people detained in Banias and restored basic services in the coastal town which was stormed by tanks last week, a human rights group said.

Water, telecommunications and electricity had been restored, but tanks remained in the main streets, the Syrian human rights observatory said on Tuesday. Two hundred people, including the pro-democracy protest leaders, were still in prison, he said.

"Scores of those released have been severely beaten and subjected to insults," Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman said.

Human rights activists said at least six civilians, including four women, were killed in raids on Sunni neighborhoods and during an attack on a demonstration of women just outside Banias on Saturday.

Until the uprising starts, Assad - sect Shi'ite Alawi minority - had been emerging Western isolation after defying the United States in Iraq and strengthening a block anti-Israeli with the Iran, Syrian Sunni growing concerns.

Banias demonstrators had raised posters of Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, who has had close ties with Al-Assad, but disputed the Syrian official account of the violence.

Erdogan said more than 1,000 civilians were killed and he did not see a repeat of the violence of Hama 1982 or gassing of Iraqi Kurds in Halabja 1988, the death of 5,000 people.

In Geneva, Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon urged the Syria to stop mass arrests and to take into account requests for reform. Ban also said that the humanitarian workers and United Nations human rights monitors should be allowed in Deraa and other cities.

Officials have blamed most of the violence on "army of terrorist groups", backed by the Islamists and agitators foreigners and say a hundred soldiers and police officers were killed.

In Syria in the South, four civilians in the town of South of Tafas were killed then the security forces have extended a campaign of arrests, a human rights activist in the region, said, adding 300 people had been detained since entry tanks Tafas on Saturday.

Libyan forces destroy fuel tanks Misrata: rebels

TRIPOLI - the Libyan Government forces destroyed four tanks and together several others were set on fire in rebel-held Misrata, a blow to the ability of the city of port to withstand a head of Government, rebel, said Saturday.

The attack on the city from the West came as artillery shells fired by forces loyal to Muammar al-Gaddafi fell in Tunisia in an escalation of fighting near the border with the rebels while trying to put an end to the rule of Gaddafi more of four decades.

Misrata, the last remaining town in the West under rebel control, besieged for more than two months and has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Rebels gave various accounts of bombings but said he struck the fuel used for export and domestic consumption.

"Four (tanks) were totally destroyed and a huge fire broke out which now distributes for the other four. We cannot shut down because we do not have the right tools, "rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan said to Reuters.

"Now the city will face a major problem." Those who were the only sources of fuel for the city. These tanks could have kept the city for three months with enough fuel, "he said by telephone."

Video of the incident, posted on YouTube by Libyan students Misrata showed firefighters turning on a light in a futile attempt to turn off water pipes.

Government forces last month flew on Misrata, at least a reconnaissance helicopter mission according to the rebels.

The NATO coalition aircraft were bombing of military targets of Libyan Government and do enforce a no fly zone by resolution of the United Nations. Western and Arab countries this week agreed to provide rebels with millions of dollars in aid non-military to help keep services and the economy running.

Rebels have long been demanding more weapons formed from the Libyan leader and heavy on the better-armed forces.

The head of the rebel forces in Libya is retracted a statement by a spokesman for rebels that the Italy had agreed to provide weapons to help in their fight to force Qaddafi.

"We have not received weapons, no the Italy, nor any other country," Abdel Fattah Younes said al-Jazeera television. "Perhaps one of the brothers did not to express themselves correctly... We apologize for the Italy for the brothers in the National Council.".

A spokesman for the National Council of transition rebels told a press conference of Benghazi with earlier in the day that weapons would be offered to the insurgents soon.

In Rome, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that no agreement was reached.

Italy submitted by the rebels, formally recognizing the Transitional Council as the legitimate representatives of the country, but it is unlikely that he would go further than the other countries of the anti-Gaddafi coalition.

FIGHTING IN BORDER

Fighting intensified in the region of the mountains of the West of the Libya as Gaddafi loyalists and rebels backed by the NATO bombing has reached impasse on other fronts in the civil war.

Government forces surrounding the Zintan rebels holding fired rockets 300 in the town on Saturday, rebel spokesman Abdulrahman al-Zintani, said. He gave no details of casualties in Zintan, which is largely empty of civilians.

"You can hear the NATO planes, but no there were no air strikes" al-Zintani told Reuters.

The Tunisian city of Dehiba was struck several times by stray shells in recent weeks, and on Saturday Tunisia condemned the bombing "extremely dangerous" and said that he would take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty.

The Libyan Government has denied targeting deliberately Tunisian soil.

"We said this (bombing) was a mistake and we have presented excuses that this took place and asked the military to ensure that it happen again," Minister Libyan Al - Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi told a press conference in Tripoli.

The battle is over the border crossing Dehiba-Wazzin, whose control gives the rebels a road to the outside world in strongholds in the mountains of the Western region. The Gaddafi forces control a plu passage far to the North.

Saturday the Dehiba schools were evacuated and residents to safety that nearly 100 mortars and missiles fell. The Crackle of small arms and large arms fire could be heard about 4 km in the Libya, said a witness for Reuters at the border.

"We are very afraid." The missiles are falling right around us, we know not what to do, "said Tunisian Mohammed Naguez, a resident of Dehiba." "Our children are afraid." The Tunisian authorities have stop this. ?

Most of the inhabitants of Western mountains belong to the Berber ethnic group and are distinguished from other Libyan. They have increased until there is two months and say of cities such as Zintan and Yafran, often bombed by the forces of Gaddafi, are far from food, water and medicine.

The civil war during the rule of Gaddafi has divided the desert-producing state of oil in a dedicated sector West by the Government around the capital, Tripoli, and a region held by rebel forces undisciplined but.

The revolt is the bloodiest yet against the leaders anchored long across the Middle East and the North Africa, which saw the overthrow of the Presidents veteran of the Tunisia and the Egypt.

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

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.