The Syrian army raided cities across the country before dawn Sunday, killing at least 30 people — most of them in the flashpoint city of Hama where a barrage of shelling and gunfire left bodies scattered in the streets, activists and residents said.
In this photo from the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian pro-government supporters carry a giant national flag during a rally in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour on Thursday. A global campaigning organization said Thursday that one person disappears in Syria every hour, and that almost 3,000 people have gone missing since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad more than four months ago. The online activist group Avaaz.org said its investigation has identified 2,918 Syrians who were arrested or abducted by force by security troops and whose whereabouts are now unknown. ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press
BEIRUT — The Syrian army raided cities across the country before dawn Sunday, killing at least 30 people — most of them in the flashpoint city of Hama where a barrage of shelling and gunfire left bodies scattered in the streets, activists and residents said.
The government is escalating its crackdown on protests calling for President Bashar Assad's ouster ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts Monday in Syria. Demonstrations are expected to swell during Ramadan as the protesters and government forces try to tip the balance in a remarkably resilient uprising that began in mid-March.
Having sealed off the main roads into Hama almost a month ago, army troops in tanks pushed into the city before daybreak Sunday in a coordinated assault. Residents shouted "God is great!" and threw firebombs, stones and sticks at the tanks. Clouds of black smoke covered parts of the city.
"It's a massacre, they want to break Hama before the month of Ramadan," an eyewitness who identified himself by his first name, Ahmed, told The Associated Press by telephone from Hama, where at least 23 people were killed Sunday.
Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties and were seeking blood donations, he said.
During Ramadan, Muslims throng mosques for special night prayers after breaking their daily dawn-to-dusk fast. The gatherings could trigger intense protests throughout the predominantly Sunni country and activists say authorities are moving to ensure that does not happen.
Other raids were reported in southern Syria and in the suburbs of the capital Damascus. In the neighborhood of al-Joura in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, soldiers in tanks fired machine guns, killing at least seven people, activists said. The reports could not be independently verified because Syria has banned most foreign media and restricted coverage.
A spokesman for The Local Coordination Committees, which organizes and monitors anti-government protests in Syria, said the group has the names of 23 civilians who died in Sunday's onslaught on Hama.
Omar Idilbi says the number is likely to be much higher as many of the dead have yet to be identified.
The London-based Observatory for Human Rights, quoting hospital officials in Hama, says the number of deaths could be as high as 45. A resident in Hama gave the same number, but the figure could not be independently confirmed.
A Hama resident said the city had been expecting an assault after security troops and pro-government thugs started streaming into the city overnight.
Residents set up sand and stone barricades to try and keep troops out, and set fire to tires.
An estimated 1,600 civilians have died in the crackdown on the largely peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad's regime since the uprising began. Most were killed in shootings by security forces on anti-government rallies.
Hama, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of the capital Damascus, has become one of the hottest centers of the demonstrations, with hundreds of thousands demonstrating every week in its central Assi Square.
In early June, security forces shot dead 65 people there, and since then it has fallen out of government control, with protesters holding the streets and government forces ringing the city and conducting overnight raids.
The city has a history of dissent against the Assad dynasty. In 1982, Assad's late father, Hafez Assad, ordered his brother to quell a rebellion by Syrian members of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood movement. The city was sealed off and bombs dropped from above smashed swaths of the city and killed between 10,000 and 25,000 people, rights groups say.
The real number may never be known. Then, as now, reporters were not allowed to reach the area.
Ahmed, the Hama resident, said he saw up to 12 people shot dead in the streets in a district known as the Baath neighborhood. Most had been shot in the chest and head, he said.
"Troops entered Hama at dawn today," another resident told The Associated Press by telephone. "We woke up to this news, they are firing from their machine guns randomly and there are many casualties."
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Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram