Syrian security forces kill 18 in new (tank) assaults

[Turborama]

Source: AP

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press – 1 hr 1 min ago

BEIRUT – The Syrian army shelled residential areas and unleashed security forces Wednesday in an intensified push to crush the uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad, killing an 8-year-old boy and at least 17 others, a human rights group said.

The lethal shelling evoked bitter memories of the regime's legacy of brutally suppressing dissent under Assad's father, Hafez. In 1982, Hafez Assad crushed a Sunni uprising by shelling the town of Hama, killing 10,000 to 25,000 people, according to Amnesty International estimates.

Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said 13 people were killed Wednesday in tank shelling on al-Haraa village outside Daraa, the southern city where the uprising began in mid-March. Five others were killed in the central city of Homs — most of them in shelling, he said. Several were killed by gunfire.

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Residents reported heavy tank fire and gunfire Wednesday in at least three residential neighborhoods in the besieged city of Homs, which has seen some of the largest anti-government demonstrations during the seven-week-long uprising.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110511/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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Qurabi also states that more than 770 people have been killed and about 9,000 are in custody since the brutal crackdown on pro-reform demonstrators began.

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