SYRIA’S GOVERNMENT deployed tanks against demonstrators, raising the death toll after almost two months of unrest, according to Syrian human rights activists.
At least 24 protesters have been killed in the last two days, including 13 who died when the village of Hara outside the southern city of Daraa was shelled, Mahmoud Merhi of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights said by phone from Syria yesterday.
At least six people died in an assault on the city of Homs yesterday and five in Jassem over the past few days, said Mr Merhi and Ammar Qurabi, the head of the National Organisation for Human Rights. Two soldiers were also killed, Mr Merhi said.
Security forces also forcefully dispersed about 2,000 people who had gathered at a demonstration at the residential compound of a university in the city of Aleppo, Mr Merhi said, adding that protesters were beaten with clubs.
The Bab Amro neighbourhood of Homs, which tanks began shelling yesterday morning, remained closed, a city resident said in an interview yesterday. Electricity, water and telecommunications in the neighbourhood had been cut; buildings were destroyed in the shelling and the number of people killed could be much higher than what has been reported, he said.
House-to-house searches and a “large number” of arrests that began two days ago had continued in the Damascus district of al-Muadamiya, which was encircled on May 9th, Mr Qurabi said.
A curfew is in effect and people have been barred from prayer at the mosques, he said.
The army said it was pursuing “terrorist elements” in the suburbs of Homs, where it arrested “dozens” of wanted people and confiscated arms and ammunition, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
More than 750 demonstrators have been killed since the uprising began, according to Mr Qurabi and Mr Merhi, who have compiled lists of the names of victims.
The number of dead probably grew after yesterday’s shelling and in light of the large number of people the two men say are missing. As many as 10,000 have been detained in the past two months.
– (Bloomberg)