Syrian tanks shelled the city of Hama, the scene of a 1982 massacre, for a second day on Monday, killing at least four civilians, residents said, in an assault to try to crush protests against President Bashar al-Assad. The killings in the city's residential Hamidiyah district brought to 84 the number of civilians reported killed in a tank-backed crackdown on the central Syrian city, 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. Residents said among those killed on Monday was Khaled Adel al-Sheikh Mossa, whose house was hit in early morning shelling. A roof of another house collapsed and a pharmacy was destroyed. A doctor said a youth died after being shot in the chest.
Syrian tanks also stormed the eastern town of Albu Kamal after a two-week siege, activists in the region said, as the military steps up assaults aimed at subduing dissent in the tribal Deir al-Zor province bordering Iraq's Sunni heartland. They added that one man, Ibrahim al-Mashadani, was killed as tanks occupied the centre. Residents said tanks surrounded Albu Kamal on July 17 after thousands of people, emboldened by army defections in the town, staged anti-Assad protests.
The latest violence cast a pall over the start of Ramazan, the holy month when Muslims fast in daylight hours. Residents said at least 29 civilians had been killed in a weekend tank assault on Deir al-Zor, the provincial capital. The European Union extended sanctions against Assad's government, imposing asset freezes and travel bans on five more people associated with a bloody crackdown on dissent. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton warned there could be more sanctions unless the Syrian leadership changed course.
She welcomed a planned emergency UN Security Council session on Syria later on Monday, saying it was time the world body took "a clear stand on the need to end the violence". Britain ruled out any such military involvement in Syria. Russia and China have previously opposed any condemnation of Syria in the council, where they hold veto powers. But Moscow signalled a change of tone on Monday.