DAMASCUS (AFP) – Security forces killed at least 11 people in Hama Tuesday while residents mobilised to keep Syria's army out, activists said as the United States urged the regime to withdraw from the flashpoint city.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, quoting medical sources, said the casualty toll had risen to 11 dead and more than 35 wounded in Hama, the hub of an anti-regime revolt which has been surrounded by the military.
"Heavy gunfire has been heard in several districts" of the city, it said.
The group said the body of one of those killed was dumped in the Orontes river of Hama, which is famous for its ancient watermills.
The activists, contacted by telephone from Nicosia, said a child was among three people shot dead by security forces on Monday on the outskirts of the city, north of Damascus, that is home to 800,000 people.
"Tanks are now posted at access routes to the city except for the northern entrance," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory.
"Residents have mobilised. They're prepared to die to defend the city if need be rather than allow the army to enter," he told AFP.
"Residents have been sleeping on the streets and put up sand barriers and tyres to block any assault."
Another activist insisted that Hama, where as many as 500,000 people took to the streets for a demonstration on Friday against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, was putting up a "100 percent peaceful" resistance.
The US State Department urged the Syrian regime to withdraw its forces from Hama and other cities.
"We urge the government of Syria to immediately halt its intimidation and arrest campaign, to pull its security forces back from Hama and other cities, and to allow Syrians to express their opinions freely so that a genuine transition to democracy can take place," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
She added Washington was "very concerned about the ongoing attacks against peaceful demonstrators in Syria."
"The government of Syria claims that it's interested in dialogue at the same time that it is attacking and massing forces in Hama, where demonstrations have been nothing but peaceful."
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, British Foreign Secretary William Hague emphasised "the importance of the Syrian government taking rapid and concrete action to stop the violence and change the situation."
Hague, who held talks with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal on hotspots in the Arab world, said "I made clear my view that President Assad's proposals for reform need to be implemented quickly and fully if they are to be of any significance."
In the capital, about 70 serving and former MPs held a meeting Tuesday to discuss the crisis, in the third such gathering in a week.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists on their Facebook site, Syrian Revolution 2011, called for a nationwide general strikes on Thursday.
Assad, faced with a revolt since mid-March, sacked the governor of Hama province on Saturday, a day after the massive rally during which security forces kept out of sight.
Since security forces gunned down 48 protesters in the city on June 3, Hama has escaped the clutches of the regime, activists say. The next day, more than 100,000 mourners were reported to have taken part in their funerals.
Hama was the scene of a 1982 blood bath in which an estimated 20,000 people were killed when the army crushed an Islamist revolt against the rule of the president's predecessor and late father, Hafez al-Assad.
In Idlib province, northwest Syria, activists said security forces on Tuesday mounted an assault on the town of Kfar Nubol, the scene of several demonstrations against Assad.
"Tanks have been deployed at crossroads and snipers posted on rooftops of house and government buildings" in the town, said the Syrian Observatory.
It added more than 500 activists and "peaceful demonstrators" had been arrested since last Friday, including lawyer Mussab Barish who was detained in Idlib on Tuesday.
Security forces also arrested Bissan Hamed and three other activists Friday on their way to Lebanon, it said, adding dozens had been rounded up in the Damascus region, including young blogger Omar Asaad and activist Adham al-Qaq.
Assad has decreed two "general" amnesties since the start of the unrest almost four months ago and also lifted a state of emergency that had been in force for five decades.
Rights groups say that more than 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people arrested by security forces since mid-March.
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