Several Killed as Regime Hunts Opponents in Syrian Towns
A 12-year-old boy was among several people killed Sunday as Syrian troops hunted down opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in two restive cities, activists said, despite world anger over the bloody crackdown.
The military said six troops, including three officers, were killed in clashes as the army pursued "armed terrorist groups" in Homs, Banias and around the southern town of Daraa -- three protest hubs.
Tanks rumbled into several districts of the central industrial city of Homs and deployed along the corniche in the northwestern coastal city of Banias, two flashpoint protest hubs, activists said.
Opposition-affiliated Sham News Network reported that citizen Abdul Hadi al-Shemali was shot dead by a sniper while he was leaving his house Sunday morning in the Homs neighborhood of al-Khaldiyeh.
For its part, opposition's Flash News Network reported a demonstration demanding the fall of the regime in the Damascus suburb of al-Maadmiyyeh.
It also reported that "despite the heavy deployment of security forces," a sit-in was held in front of Othman bin Affan mosque in Deir Ezzor in the east.
Meanwhile justice authorities charged prominent dissident and former MP Riad Seif, a 64-year-old who suffers from cancer, with violating a ban on protests, his lawyer Khalil Maatouq said.
Overnight the military cut electricity and communications before entering several Homs districts that are home to opponents of Assad's regime, after having taken up positions inside the city on Friday, an activist said.
Gunfire reverberated in Bab Sebaa and Baba Amro, two neighborhoods in the city of one million inhabitants which has been the scene of almost daily demonstrations since the protests erupted mid-March.
A video posted online at YouTube showed around 20 truckloads of soldiers heading into the night towards Bab Sebaa. The authenticity of the video could not be verified.
Qassem Zuheir al-Ahmed, 12, was killed by gunfire in Homs, where other people also died, said an activist who was unable to specify who shot the boy or give an overall casualty toll.
"Snipers are posted on rooftops," the activist said.
The military conducted a similar operation after cutting electricity, communications and water in the Mediterranean port city of Banias, said Rami Abdul Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The city is isolated from the rest of the world and in the southern districts of the city, a stronghold of the protesters, there are snipers on rooftops," he said.
"Tanks have been positioned on the corniche and in the southern neighborhoods of Banias and people have been arrested," he said, adding that security forces have "lists of names" of people they want detained.
According to the Observatory, more than 250 people, including a 10-year-old, were arrested during raids Saturday night and Sunday in Banias.
Abdul Rahman also warned against "a humanitarian catastrophe in the southern districts" of Banias, where 20,000 people reside. The city's overall population is 50,000.
Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the government, said the army was locked "in a fierce battle against groups using heavy weapons, anti-tank rockets and machine guns" in and around Banias since Friday night.
At least six people were killed in the city on Saturday, four of them women who were protesting for the release of prisoners taken into custody by security forces, an activist said.
The military launched its action in Banias and Homs after ending a 10-day lockdown in which dozens were killed and scores detained in the southern town of Daraa, the epicenter of the pro-democracy protests that erupted on March 15.
Al-Watan said Syria's embattled president met Saturday with a delegation of youths "who spoke of the violent practices of some security forces.
"Assad did not deny such practices and said it was down to individual behavior, and that the government was working to contain the crisis and avert violence," it reported.
But a leading Syrian cyber dissident said in an interview published Sunday that Assad's regime learned how to put down the popular protest from its ally Iran.
"First, people were killed indiscriminately to spread fear. Then they (the Syrian security forces) realized that if they kill someone, at least 10 friends would take to the streets and be ready to die for that person," Rami Nakhleh told the Austria Press Agency.
"But if you arrest and torture someone, at least 10 of his friends will be scared. This is how they've proceeded over the past two weeks," he said adding: "This method was copied from Iran."
A member of Syria's banned Socialist Union party told Agence France Presse in Beirut meanwhile that he had fled his home outside Damascus after being told by other activists that he would be arrested.
"Our society is dominated by fear," Mujab Assamara, 33, said. "The revolution is extraordinary. It is for liberty and dignity ... and it will be very difficult for the Syrian people to turn back," he added.
Rights groups say more than 600 people were killed and 8,000 jailed or gone missing in the crackdown on protesters since mid-March. The Committee of the Martyrs of the 15 March Revolution puts the death toll at 708.
The United States has warned it would take "additional steps" against Syria if it continues its brutal crackdown while the European Union decided on Friday to impose sanctions on 13 Syrian officials involved in the brutal crackdown on protests.
On Monday EU ambassadors are due to meet to discuss whether to target Assad as well, diplomats said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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