Syrian military vessels joined an assault that killed 26 people on Sunday in the port city of Latakia, activists said, the first attack from the sea since an anti-regime revolt erupted in March. But the state-run news agency SANA denied that the navy had attacked Latakia, quoting its correspondent in there as saying security forces were battling gunmen.
Activists said four other people were killed elsewhere in the country in bloodshed that came a day after world leaders demanded an immediate end to the ruthless crushing of dissent in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that at least 23 people were killed and dozens more wounded in the city, several critically.
But the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS) put the death toll in Latakia at 26, providing a list of names of those killed, and said two other people died in Homs, one in Hama and one in Idlib.
The Syrian Observatory said the vessels opened up with heavy machine-guns and the NOHRS confirmed the report, calling the attack "unprecedented."
But the official SANA news agency, quoting its Latakia correspondent, denied that naval vessels had opened fire on the city. The agency said its correspondent "denied reports carried by some media that said Ramel (district) was shelled from the sea."
"Law enforcement members are pursuing armed men who are using machine guns, grenades and bombs in Ramel from rooftops and from behind barricades," SANA said.
In May, during an army operation in Banias, another port, navy ships patrolled offshore but did not open fire. Security forces also surged into the Damascus suburbs of Saqba and Hamriya overnight, cutting communications, firing shots and making arrests, said the Syrian Observatory.
Ships are "attacking Latakia and explosions have been heard in several districts," the group said earlier, adding that the main target was the suburb of Ramel.