Syrian army 'storms' protest city

Syrian army units stormed into the city of Banias with tanks overnight, attacking Sunni districts that had defied President Bashar al-Assad's autocratic rule, a human rights campaigner said today.

The units entered the coastal city, a majority of whose residents are Sunni Muslims, from three directions, advancing into Sunni districts but not Alawite neighbourhoods, said the campaigner.
Most communications with Banias have been cut but the campaigner was able to contact some residents, he said.




President Bashar al-Assad



More than 600 people have been killed in Syria since unrest began in mid-March, and the death toll may be higher as many people are missing, Merhi and Qurabi said in telephone interviews on May 5. About 3,000 people have been arrested since April 30, one-third of them in Daraa, Qurabi said.

Authorities described Banias as a "centre of Salafist terrorism" and said armed groups had killed soldiers near the city. Civic leaders in Banias issued a statement denying the accusation and saying the authorities were trying to spread fear among the Alawites.

"They are targeting Sunnis. I regret to say that the propaganda that Assad is spreading that the Alawites will not survive if he is toppled is receiving an audience among our Alawite neighbours, although the demonstrations have been for freedom and unity, regardless of sect," Protest leader Anas Shughri said earlier this week.

President Assad said the protesters were part of a foreign conspiracy to cause sectarian strife.

His father Hafez al-Assad used similar language when he crushed Islamist and secular challenges to his rule in the 1980s, culminating in the violent suppression of an uprising in the city of Hama in which 30,000 people were killed.

/Swedish:/
På morgonen har syriska trupper med stridsvagnar stormat staden Banias, enligt uppgifter från människorättsaktivister till nyhetsbyrån Reuters.

Styrkorna verkar inrikta sig på de delar av staden där motståndet mot president Bashar al-Assad är stort.

Majoriteten av invånarna i Banias är sunnimuslimer (se >> http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunniter).
De flesta förbindelserna med staden är avbrutna och även elen uppges ha stängts av i Banias.
Invånarna försöker stoppa trupperna genom att bilda mänskliga kedjor inne i staden, säger aktivister till nyhetsbyrån AFP.
Stridsvagnar och soldater positionerade sig i utkanterna av staden redan i onsdags.
Syriska pansartrupper uppges också ha omringat staden Baida, som ligger i närheten.