Syrian tanks and troops ‘enter flashpoint Baniyas city’
From Prague Spring to Tienanmen to Syria you know things are going bad when the tanks show up for use against civilians and their own countrymen instead of foreign armies.
They entered in three places and descended on the Sunni districts of the coastal city, human rights activists told news agencies.
Communications to the city and surrounding areas appear to have been cut making the reports hard to verify.
Rights activists say more than 580 people have been killed in the uprising since mid-March.
However, Syrian rights group Sawasiah told Reuters news agency on Saturday it has the names of at least 800 civilians who have died.
Syrian officials have given a lower death toll, and say half the fatalities have been soldiers and police, killed by “armed terrorist groups”.
At least 26 people were reportedly killed in Homs, Hama and other cities on Friday, in what protesters had vowed would be a “day of defiance”.