Syrian death toll rises as forces widen military crackdown on protests

A Syrian protester displays Arabic words on his hands: 'Yes for freedom, no to violence'. Photograph: Muzaffar Salman/AP

Syrian forces killed at least 11 civilians and wounded scores on Sunday, a prominent human rights campaigner said, in a widening military push into central Syria to quell protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Tanks, supported by troops, fired heavy machineguns in the towns of Talbiseh and Rastan and several villages near the city of Homs, residents reported.

These are the latest population centres to come under army assault since a military crackdown to crush dissent against Assad's autocratic rule began at the end of last month in southern Syria, the cradle of the 10-week uprising.

The killings occurred in and around the towns of Talbiseh and Rastan in rural Homs, human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouna said by telephone from Damascus. Earlier, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, said it had the names of eight civilians killed.

"Soldiers are now all over Talbiseh. They are breaking into houses and arresting people," one resident in the town of 60,000 said in a telephone interview as the sound of bullets echoed in the background.

The official state news agency said four members of the security forces were killed in Talbiseh "while chasing armed terrorist groups ? to detain them and present them to justice."

Talbiseh is 6 miles north of Homs, Syria's third largest city, where tanks shelled a main neighbourhood earlier this month.

Troops have been occupying the main square in Homs to prevent scenes similar to when tens of thousands demonstrated in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen to press for reform.

Witness reports of violence in Syria, as well as official accounts, are difficult to verify independently because the government barred most international media from the country not long after the start of the unrest in March.

Another witness in Rastan, further to the north, said the town's main clinic was full of wounded people and there was no way to get them to a hospital because of heavy tank fire.

"This is pure revenge," said the witness, a lawyer who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.

Thousands of protesters in Rastan on Friday demanded the removal of Assad in one of the largest demonstrations in the region since the uprising against the government erupted in southern Syria on March 18.

Rastan, a relatively prosperous town in an agricultural region, is on the main northern highway from Damascus to Syria's second city Aleppo.

The lawyer said internet, water, electricity, land lines and most mobile telephone links had been cut, a step commonly used by the military before they storm urban centres.

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/30/syria-civilian-deaths-talbiseh-rastan

bbc world news countdown bbc world news ethiopia bbc world news for kids bbc world news frontpage bbc world news headlines