Scores of people have been killed after Syrian security forces stormed the city of Hama in a bid to crush a long-running protest movement.
Tanks and armed forces entered the city at dawn on Sunday, shelling buildings and cutting down dozens in a hail of gunfire.
Conflicting accounts of the death toll were still emerging by late afternoon local time, with some news reports suggesting that up to 100 people were killed.
Forces loyal to the Syrian president Bashar al Assad also moved on other rebel-dominated cities such as Harak, in Daraa province, and the eastern province of Deir al Zour, where six people were reported to have been killed on Sunday.
In addition, a leading opposition figure, Sheikh Nawaf Al Bashir, head of the Baqqara tribe in Deir al Zor, was arrested on Sunday morning.
The action comes after pro-democracy groups vowed to stage protests every night of the holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Monday.
Human rights activists say that 1,500 civilians and 350 security personnel have lost their lives in Syria since protests began in mid-March.
“It’s a massacre. They want to break Hama before the month of Ramadan,” said one Hama resident quoted by the Associated Press, who gave his name as Ahmed.
The man said that the city’s hospitals were overrun with casualties from the assault.
The attacks drew condemnation from foreign leaders. Britain’s foreign secretary William Hague, said that the attack was “all the more shocking” as it took place on the eve of Ramadan.
“President Bashar is mistaken if he believes that oppression and military force will end the crisis in his country,” said Hague. “He should stop this assault on his own people now.”
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