Syrian tanks occupy main Hama square, shell city-residents and besiege protest hubs
Syrian tanks occupy main Hama square, shell city-residents and besiege protest hubs.
Al Arabiya
Wednesday, 03 August 2011
Syrian tanks occupied the main Orontes Square in central Hama after heavy shelling of the city on Wednesday, residents said.
“All communications have been cut off. The regime is using the media focus on the Hosni Mubarak trial to finish off Hama,” one of the residents told Reuters by satellite phone from the city, adding that shelling concentrated on al-Hader district, large parts of which were razed during a 1982 military assault on Hama that killed thousands.
He said that tanks were seen thrusting to the centre from the south, accompanied by an array of ultra-loyalist units, including militiamen known as ‘shabbiha’, paratroopers and special forces.
The square has been the venue of some of the largest demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule during a five-month street uprising for political freedoms. A brutal crackdown by security forces has killed many hundreds of protesters, according to human rights groups.
“There are some 100 tanks and troop carriers on the highway leading to the central town of Hama and about 200 tanks around the eastern town of Deir Ezzor,” Rami Abdel Rahman, of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
He told AFP that all telephone and Internet communication had been cut in Hama and nearby areas.
Rahman added that two people were killed late Tuesday when security forces opened fire on demonstrators in the northern town of Raqqa and a third was killed during a protest in the coastal town of Jableh.
His account could not be independently verified as foreign reporters are not allowed to travel in Syria to report on the unrest.
The fierce crackdown on Hama — where thousands were killed in 1982 when security forces crushed an anti-government uprising — has prompted solidarity protests in various towns across Syria over the past two days.
The official SANA news agency accused “armed terrorist gangs” of seeking to scare residents of Hama and Deir Ezzor by spreading false information it said was aimed at sowing unrest and harming the army’s image.
“We urge citizens to ignore these rumors being spread and confirm that the army is working to restore order in towns where these groups are operating,” SANA said.
State television also aired an amateur video showing corpses being thrown from a bridge into a river, and said the bodies were of security forces killed by anti-government protesters.
Rights activists, however, have challenged that account saying the victims were pro-democracy protesters killed by the army.
Some 1,600 civilians and 370 members of the security forces have been killed since pro-democracy protests erupted in Syria in mid-March.
The uprising poses the greatest challenge to the regime of President Assad.
Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized
WarSclerotic 
Leave a comment