Syrian tanks opened fire on poor Sunni districts in Latakia on Tuesday, residents said, the fourth day of a military assault on the northern port city aimed at crushing protests demanding an end to 41 years of Assad family rule. President Bashar al-Assad, from Syria’s minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, has broadened and intensified a military assault against towns and cities where demonstrators have been demanding his removal since the middle of March.
“Heavy machinegun fire and explosions were hitting al-Raml al-Filistini (home to Palestinian refugees) and al-Shaab this morning. This subsided and now there is the sound of intermittent tank fire,” one of the residents, who lives near the two districts of Latakia, told Reuters by telephone. The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, a grassroots activists’ group, said six people, including Ahmad Soufi, 22, were killed in Latakia on Monday, bringing the civilian death toll there to 34, including a two-year-old girl. The crackdown coincided with the Aug. 1 start of the Muslim Ramadan fast, when nightly prayers became the occasion for more protests against over four decades of Baathist party rule. Syrian forces have already stormed Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by the military, the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, the southern city of Deraa and several northwestern towns in a province bordering Turkey.
“The regime seems intent on breaking the bones of the uprising across the country this week, but the people are not backing down. Demonstrations in Deir al-Zor are regaining momentum,” one activist in the city said. The Assads have been repeatedly warned by the United States, European Union and Turkey but the government is signalling to its legion of critics abroad that it will not bow to calls for change that have swept across the Arab world, and to its people that it is prepared to wade through blood to stay in power.
ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS: In Deir al-Zor, residents said the army pulled out anti-aircraft guns from the city, but armoured personnel carriers remained at main junctions and troops, accompanied by military intelligence, stormed houses looking for wanted dissidents.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Assad to halt such military operations now or face unspecified consequences. “This is our final word to the Syrian authorities, our first expectation is that these operations stop immediately and unconditionally,” Davutoglu said in Turkey’s strongest warning yet to its once close ally and neighbour.
