AMMAN, (Reuters) – Syrian government forces pressed their assault on anti-government protestors in the city of Hama yesterday oblivious to a wave of condemnation from Western powers.
Tanks pounded residential neighbourhoods across the city after evening prayers marking the first day of Ramadam, the Muslim holy month.
Earlier yesterday, at least four civilians were killed by tank fire on the second day of attacks on the city where memories are still vivid of the brutal suppression of an uprising in 1982.
“The shells are falling once every ten seconds,” one witness told Reuters by phone. The thump of artillery and explosions could be heard in the background.
Appalled by the bloodshed, European powers relaunched a draft U.N. resolution to condemn President Bashar al-Assad’s government for its crackdown on protesters, circulating a revised text to the Security Council at a meeting on Monday.
At least 122 civilians taking part in the protests calling for Assad to give up power have been killed since Sunday, according to witnesses, residents and rights campaigners.
About 85 of those were in Hama, where Assad’s father crushed an armed Muslim Brotherhood revolt 29 years ago by razing neighbourhoods and killing many thousands of people.
“No one can leave the town because the troops and shabbiha (pro-Assad militia) are shooting at random with machineguns,” a resident, who gave his name as Raed, told Reuters by telephone.
Security forces, dominated by Assad’s minority Alawite sect, had besieged Hama, a mainly Sunni Muslim city of 700,000, for nearly a month before the assault.
Analysts said that by choosing to crush the dissent there with overwhelming military force, Assad had chosen a path of no return against those clamouring for his overthrow
