WarSclerotic

He said that elsewhere, “19 people were killed in Deir Ezzor in the east, six more died in Harak in the south and one in Al Bukamal,” also in the east.

Several observers wondered if Mr. Assad was truly in charge of the situation. Some suggested that his brother, Maher, may be leading the assault against pro-democracy protesters. Maher Assad is known for his personal brutality and intolerance of dissent.

Reports have suggested that President Assad’s immediate family is in London, including his wife Asma. Mrs. Assad is particularly popular throughout Syria and internationally because of her humanitarian concerns, social work – and her great beauty.

While speculation increased Sunday afternoon about her husband’s whereabouts and whether he was still in control of Syria, world condemnation of the Syrian brutality slowly started.

The Obama Administration did not directly issue a condemnation from Washington. But a US embassy official in Damascus said on Sunday Syrian authorities had launched a war against their own people by attacking the city of Hama to try to crush pro-democracy demonstrations.

“It is desperate. The authorities think that somehow they can prolong their existence by engaging in full armed warfare on their own citizens,” Press Attache J. J. Harder told Reuters by phone. He described the official Syrian account of the violence as “nonsense.”

A group identifying itself as “The Free Army of Syria” warned security forces against attacking civilians

Witnesses earlier said three people, including a child, were killed and 15 others wounded in Al Harak Village near the flashpoint city of Deraa, Al Arabiya TV reported.

The official SANA news agency, meanwhile, reported two members of the security forces killed on Sunday by “armed groups” in Hama.

“Two law enforcement members were martyred by armed groups in Hama who set police stations on fire, vandalized public and private properties, set up roadblocks and barricades and burned tires at the entrance of the city and in its streets,” an English-language report on the SANA website said.

The agency gave little report of the civilian killings by the security forces.

The Facebook page of the “Syrian Reveolution Against Bashar Al Assad” posted videos an army unity that has defected in Hama. Another video showed a police station in the city torched down in fighting between defected soldiers and security forces.

Several observers wondered if Mr. Assad was truly in charge of the situation. Some suggested that his brother, Maher, may be leading the assault against pro-democracy protesters. Maher is known for her personal brutality and intolerance of dissent.

One of the residents, a doctor, said there were 51 people wounded at Badr hospital alone, which was running short of blood for transfusions. He said tanks had surrounded another main hospital, Al Horani.

“Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machineguns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants,” he said by phone, the sound of machinegun fire crackling in the background.

Another resident said snipers had climbed onto the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison, and that electricity had been cut in eastern neighborhoods.

Mr. Assad is attempting to crush an uprising against his 11-year rule that broke out in March, inspired by “Arab Spring” revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, and has spread across the country.

Syrian authorities have expelled most independent journalists, making it difficult to verify reports of fighting.

Hama was the scene of a massacre in 1982 when Mr. Assad’s father, the late president Hafez Al Assad, sent his troops to crush an Islamist-led uprising, razing whole neighborhoods and killing up to 30,000 people in the bloodiest episode of Syria’s modern history. Some say that more than 100,000 people were killed, and the true figure will perhaps never be known.

The US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, visited the city earlier this month in a gesture of international support for what he described as peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, once one of Mr. Assad’s main allies, said in May that “we do not want to see another Hama massacre,” and warned the 45-year-old president that it would be hard to contain the consequences if it were repeated.

The Syrian leadership blames “armed terrorist groups” for most killings during the revolt, saying that more than 500 soldiers and security personnel have been killed.

An activist group, Avaaz, said in a report last week that Syrian security forces had killed 1,634 people in the course of their crackdown, while at least 2,918 had disappeared.

Another 26,000 had been arrested, many of whom were beaten and tortured, and 12,617 remained in detention, it said.

(Mustapha Ajbaili, Managing Editor of Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: Mustapha.ajbaili@mbc.net)