http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/world/middleeast/07syria.html

August 6, 2011

Syria Forces Extend Siege on Hama as Toll Rises

By NADA BAKRI

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Syrian security forces tightened their siege on the restive city of Hama on Saturday, and human rights activists said that at least 24 people had been killed on Friday during demonstrations against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Hama has been under heavy assault for a week. Mr. Assad ordered his troops, backed by hundreds of tanks, to roll into the city last Sunday in an attempt to crush an uprising there that he feared could gain momentum and embolden an opposition movement that has sought the downfall of his government since mid-March.

The military operation was mounted amid growing regional and international condemnation. Joining a chorus of countries criticizing the crackdown on democracy advocates, oil-rich Arab states called Saturday for Syria to bring an "immediate end to violence."

In a statement, the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- urged Syrian leaders to "resort to wisdom and introducing serious and necessary reforms that would protect the rights and dignity of the people, and meet their aspirations."

The statement followed promises by the United States and European countries to consider new sanctions against Syria.

In a phone conversation on Saturday, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, told Mr. Assad that he was alarmed by the escalating violence, the world body's press office said in a statement. It added that Mr. Ban had "urged the president to stop the use of military force against civilians immediately."

Human rights activists said that at least 200 people had been killed in Hama since last Sunday, when tanks started shelling neighborhoods. Telephone lines, water and electricity have also been cut off for the past week, and no bakeries have opened in that time. Activists also said that the death toll could be much higher but that a comprehensive and accurate count was almost impossible, given the state of communications, the siege and the difficulty of moving around.

They said they feared the near-total media blackout imposed on the city could mean that the military was carrying out an unrestrained operation.

Wissam Tarif, an activist with Avaaz, a group that has sought to document the uprising, said a doctor in Hama told him that several people brought to his hospital had been shot in the head at close range, leaving him to presume they had been executed.

Residents have also spoken of bodies strewn across the streets and of people bleeding to death, their relatives unable to drive them to hospitals. Bodies are being buried in the nearest private gardens or public parks.

The Syrian government, however, disputes the activists' accounts, and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest. It says it is battling Muslim extremists.

For the first time on Friday, Syrian television broadcast images of the destruction in Hama, showing burned buildings, makeshift barricades and deserted streets dotted with rubble. The video appeared designed to show that government forces had put down a rebellion in the city.

An activist from Hama who spoke via satellite phone said that shelling continued overnight Friday and Saturday morning and that several people had been killed.

The Local Coordinating Committees in Syria, a coalition of activists who help organize and document protests, said Saturday that at least 24 people had died Friday.

The coalition said nine of those deaths were in Damascus, the capital, and its suburbs during demonstrations after noon prayers and after a special evening prayer, known as tarawih, performed only during the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset.