Dozens dead as Syrian army storms city of Hama

Hama, a hub of anti-government protest, has been besieged for nearly a month but has now been breached by troops and tanks as these poured into the city from several directions are dawn amid “intense gunfire.”

The army is signalling that it will not tolerate large-scale unrest ahead of the month of Ramadan, when protests are expected to grow, the BBC reports.

Syria has seen more than four months of protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

A doctor in Hama is reported by Reuters news agency to have said the death toll was rising rapidly, putting the latest estimate at 24.He said the city's three main hospitals had already received 19, three, and two dead bodies respectively.

"[Tanks] are firing their heavy machineguns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants," he was reported a saying.

Residents of northern Hama, where the attack seemed to be concentrated, said tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute there. They also confirmed deaths in the area.

Electricity and water supplies had been cut, they said, in a tactic regularly used by the military when storming towns to crush protests.

The government blames armed Islamist gangs for the unrest, but correspondents say the protests appear largely peaceful, with only isolated cases of residents arming themselves against the military assault.

Most foreign media is banned from the country, making it difficult to verify reports.

Hama was the scene of the suppression of an uprising against President Assad's father in 1982. The city has seen some of the biggest demonstrations of the recent unrest.

Activists say more than 1,500 civilians and 350 security personnel have been killed across Syria since protests began in mid-March. More than 12,600 have been arrested and 3,000 others are missing.

The protests show no sign of letting up despite a government crackdown that has brought international condemnation and sanctions.

On Saturday, troops shot dead three people who threw stones at a military convoy sent to quash unrest in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Spokesman Rami Abdel Rahman said about 60 military vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers and trucks crammed with soldiers deployed in the key oil hub, which has seen near daily protests.

A total of 20 people were killed and 35 wounded on Friday as hundreds of thousands of protested in cities across Syria, rights groups said.

More than 500 people were arrested in a single operation in the Qadam neighbourhood of the capital Damascus, they added.