Syrian forces have killed at least 21 people in a massive tank-backed raid on the central city of Homs, rights activists say, after the government postponed a visit to the country by the Arab League chief.
Wednesday's security operation came after 2,000 people had taken to the streets of the city a day earlier, activists said.
Most of the killings occurred in old neighbourhoods of Homs, situated on the main northern highway 165km from the capital Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based independent Syrian rights group, said.
The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), which organises the anti-regime protests on the ground, said the death toll continues to increase in Homs, where communications and internet services was cut in many neighbourhoods on Wednesday.
At least two people were killed in raids and attacks on Idlib province's Sarmeen, and one other in the northern city of Hama, the LCC said.
State-run news agency SANA reported that a "terrorist group" kidnapped two Baath party officials in the town of Rastan, near Homs, on Wednesday.
"That may be the reason behind the intense raids in Homs," Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh reported from neighbouring Jordan. The Syrian government bans international journalists from entering the country.
Activists and residents said heavy machine-gun fire was heard in the Bab Dreib and Bostan Diwan neighbourhoods of Homs on Tuesday night after the protesters had set out for the area from Bab Tadmor.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/09/20119785531287269.html
No comments:
Post a Comment