Tanks storm south Syria city, US piles on pressure

AMMAN, (Reuters) – The West warned of more pressure  on Syria if a crackdown against pro-democracy protests  continues, hours after tanks stormed a city in the south, cradle  of an uprising against Baathist rule.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that both the  European Union and the United States — which have already  slapped sanctions on a number of senior Syrian officials but not  on President Bashar al-Assad — were planning more steps.

“We will be taking additional steps in the days ahead,”  Clinton said, saying she agreed with EU foreign policy chief  Catherine Ashton, who told reporters that the time for Syria to  make changes was now.

Rights activists say a crackdown to crush a two-month wave  of protests against Assad has killed at least 700 civilians.

Syrian tanks moved into a southern city on the Hauran Plain  on Tuesday after encircling it for three weeks, activists said.

Soldiers fired machineguns as tanks and armoured personnel  carriers entered Nawa, a city of 80,000 people 60 km (40 miles)  north of the town of Deraa, according to activists from the  region.

“The governor (of the province) had announced that the  troops have the names of 180 wanted men in Nawa, but the arrests  are arbitrary,” one rights campaigner said.