Syrian forces kill 3 as tanks enter coastal city (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian troops killed three people as tanks swept into a coastal city on Saturday, activists said, in a crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad which drew criticism from an international Muslim group.

The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, adding its voice to growing Arab pressure on Assad, called for an immediate halt to the military campaign against protesters which activists say has killed 1,700 civilians in five months.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah repeated their calls for the crackdown to stop.

Obama also spoke to British Prime Minister David Cameron and the leaders called for an immediate end to attacks by Syrian government forces against protesters, the White House said. It said Obama and Cameron would "consult on further steps in the days ahead." [nN1E77C03V]

Saturday's bloodshed came a day after security forces shot dead 20 people during nationwide marches in which demonstrators called for Assad's overthrow and vowed they would "kneel only to God."

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two people were killed and 15 wounded in heavy gunfire after around 20 military vehicles entered the Ramle district of Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast.

Soldiers backed by loyalist militia known as shabbiha were also deployed in the city's Sulaiba district, the group's head Rami Abdel Rahman said. "They are arresting dozens of people," he said, adding many people were fleeing the assault.

Troops and shabbiha killed one person in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border, and made arrests in nearby Jousiyah village, he said. The bodies of four people arrested during an assault last week in the Houla Plain, north of Homs city, were returned to their families, he added.

Syria has barred most independent media, making it hard to verify events on the ground in the unrest, one of a series of popular revolts against autocratic Arab leaders this year.

Authorities deny reports of deaths in detention and say 500 soldiers and police have been killed by armed groups they blame for the violence. State news agency SANA said three members of the security forces were killed in Friday's protests.

Since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in early August, Assad has stepped up the military campaign, launching army assaults on the central city of Hama and the city of Deir al-Zor in the eastern Sunni Muslim tribal heartland. Assad's family, which has ruled Syria for 41 years, is from the minority Alawite sect.

After a wave of Arab criticism of Damascus last week, the Saudi Arabia-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) accused Syria on Saturday of using "excessive armed force" and called on Damascus to stop the bloodshed.

OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged Assad "to exercise utmost restraint through the immediate halt to the use of force to suppress popular demonstrations."

Obama and King Abdullah spoke by telephone on Saturday and "agreed that the Syrian regime's brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately," the White House said, adding the two leaders agreed to consult closely.

The Saudi monarch, who has had fraught relations with Assad but had worked with him to reduce tension in Lebanon last year, recalled his ambassador from Damascus on Monday.

France's Foreign Ministry advised citizens against traveling to Syria and urged any French people still in the country to leave using available commercial transport. Its website cited the "aggravation of tensions."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday Syria would be better off without Assad and called on nations that buy oil or sell arms to Syria to cut those ties.

"We urge those countries still buying Syrian oil or gas, those countries still sending Assad weapons, those countries whose political and economic support give him comfort in his brutality, to get on the right side of history," she said.

Syria's oil industry, with which the Assad family has close links, generates most of the state's hard currency from crude output of 380,000 barrels per day.

While Syria exports crude oil, its refinery capacity is not sufficient to meet domestic demand for fuel. Trading sources said Swiss oil traders Vitol and Trafigura agreed to supply state firm Sytrol with 60,000 tonnes of gasoline this week.

The global campaign group Avaaz urged European nations on Friday to impose immediate restrictions on purchases of Syrian oil to "dry up" funding of Assad's forces. It said more than 150,000 Avaaz members had signed a petition to that effect.

On Wednesday, Washington imposed sanctions on Syria's largest bank and its biggest mobile telephone company, controlled by Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf. The next day, U.S. Ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford said more sanctions would follow unless the Syrian authorities halted the violence.

(Additional reporting by Alister Bull in Washington and Nick Vinocur in Paris; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Syrian tanks enter coastal town in new crackdown

BEIRUT (AP) — Troops in tanks and armored vehicles entered a key oil-industry city on Syria's Mediterranean coast Saturday, taking up position in a hilltop Crusader castle and cutting off power and phone lines. An activist said three women protesting the crackdown were shot dead.

The move against Banias, which had become a bastion of anti-regime protests in recent days, signals an expanding campaign by President Bashar Assad aimed at crushing the country's seven-week nationwide uprising.

Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights said the three women were protesting the siege and the cutting of power lines when they were shot dead by plainclothed security forces or pro-government gunmen.

Saturday's shooting occurred near al-Marqab, about a mile southeast of Banias. Qurabi said gunfire was continuing and several other people were wounded.

The events in Banias, a day after security forces killed 30 people in nationwide protests, came on the heels of a large-scale military operation in the flashpoint southern city of Daraa. The 11-day siege, in which about 50 residents were killed, triggered international outrage and condemnation.

The U.S. has already targeted three top Syrian officials as well as Syria's intelligence agency and Iran's Revolutionary Guard with sanctions over the crackdown. The European Union is expected to place sanctions on Syrian officials next week, and the U.N. said Saturday it is sending a team into Syria to investigate the situation.

An operation in Banias similar to the one in Daraa, where the uprising began, risks further isolating Assad's regime, which has used brutal military force to crush the unprecedented revolt against his family's 40-year dynasty.

Details of the troop deployment in Banias, for weeks the scene of demonstrations demanding regime change, were scarce as phone lines and other communication with the area were mostly cut off.

But an eyewitness reached by The Associated Press said soldiers deployed in Banias early Saturday on tanks and armored vehicles, stretching for several kilometers (miles) along the coastal highway as they approached.

He said tanks moved into the seaside area and were stationed in at least three Sunni villages just south of Banias. Soldiers were carrying out house-to-house searches and arrests in al-Marqab district about a mile southeast of the town and in two villages further south, claiming to be looking for weapons and terrorist fugitives.

The witness and activists said the army is now occupying the hilltop Marqab Castle, an 11th century Crusader fortress overlooking Banias. Several gunboats were seen off the coast.

"Banias is now surrounded from all directions, not a single person can go in or out," said the resident, who did not wish to be identified for fear of reprisals.

He said electricity and phone lines had been cut off, and residents were charging their mobile phones on car batteries.

Banias, which is home to one of the country's two oil refineries and is the main point of export for Syrian oil, has a potentially explosive mix of religious groups and sects. It is predominantly Sunni Muslim but is also home to many Alawites — the sect of the ruling Assad family and many senior officials. It also has a large power station.

Syrian officials and state-run media has tried to portray Banias as a hotbed of Islamic extremists to justify its crackdown. SANA said the army and security forces were pursuing fugitives in Banias and were able to arrest a large number of them and confiscate weapons used by them.

On Friday, witnesses said several thousand people held a protest in Banias calling for regime change.

"They are trying to portray us as criminals. We are not, we only want to live in freedom and dignity," said one Banias resident.

Elsewhere, up to 20,000 people took part in the funerals Saturday of seven people who were among those killed the previous day in the central city of Homs. A witness said soldiers on tanks and armored vehicles were deployed on intersections and roundabouts on the outer edge of the city while soldiers and security forces were heavily deployed inside.

In the Damascus suburb of Saqba, some 3,000 people took part in a funeral for a man reportedly shot dead by security forces manning a checkpoint as he was riding a motorcycle following a protest.

The Banias deployment came just hours after Friday's confrontations between security forces and protesters. A leading Syrian human rights activist said security forces killed 30 people across the country; Syria's state-run media said 11 soldiers and policemen were killed in Homs.

The uprising in Syria was sparked by the arrest of teenagers who scrawled anti-regime graffiti on a wall in Daraa. Protests spread quickly across the nation of some 23 million people.

The army announced the end to an 11-day military operation in Daraa on Thursday, but residents have said troops still remain in the streets.

The National Organization for Human Rights said in a statement Saturday it had reports authorities were trying to cover up traces of crimes they committed in Daraa, paving roads and painting pro-government slogans on the city's walls ahead of the visit by the U.N. investigative team.

More than 580 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since the revolt began, rights groups say.

The bloodshed Friday was the latest spasm in what has become a weekly cycle of mass protests followed by a swift and deadly crackdown. Assad insists the unrest is a foreign conspiracy carried out by "terrorist groups."

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Syrian troops said massing around coastal city

BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian army said Thursday it has begun withdrawing from a city at the heart of the country's uprising, but the regime expanded its crackdown elsewhere by deploying soldiers and arresting hundreds ahead of a new wave of anti-government protests.

Syrians protest against the regime in the coastal town of Banias on Thursday.

The siege on Daraa — the southern city where Syria's six-week-old uprising began — lasted 11 days with President Bashar Assad unleashing tanks and snipers to crush dissent there. Syria's state-run media said the military had "carried out its mission in detaining terrorists" and restored calm in Daraa.

Still, an activist who has been giving The Associated Press updates from Daraa cast doubt on the army claim. The activist, who left Daraa early Thursday, said residents were reporting that tanks and troops were still in the city.

The accounts could not be independently confirmed and telephone calls to Daraa were not going through.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Thursday a U.N. humanitarian team will be going to Daraa in the coming days following a phone appeal by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Assad.

Even as the army said it was pulling out of Daraa, military units were deploying elsewhere, including around the coastal town of Banias that is home to one of Syria's two oil refineries, witnesses said. Four armored personnel carriers, several tanks and a bus carrying soldiers had been spotted.

"The situation is very worrying," a Banias resident said Thursday, asking that his name not be published out of fear for his personal safety. Hundreds of families were fleeing the area in case Banias also comes under siege.

Also Thursday, a human rights activist said Syrian security forces conducted a major raid in a suburb of the capital, Damascus, detaining more than 200 people.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the raid in the Saqba neighborhood occurred in the early hours of Thursday after authorities cut telecommunications in the area.

Assad is determined to crush the revolt, which was inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and has now become the gravest challenge to his family's 40-year dynasty.

Assad has tried a combination of brute force, intimidation and promises of reform to quell the unrest, but his attempts have failed so far.

Security forces have repeatedly opened fire on protesters during rallies around the country, including in the northern city of Hama, where amateur video captured the sound of heavy gunfire last week as men yelled and ran for cover. Later, the same video showed a nighttime candlelight march.

Syrian activists were planning to take to the streets again on Friday, the main day for protests in the Arab world, for what they are calling a "Day of Defiance."

More than 550 people have been killed since security forces began cracking down on the protests. Scores of soldiers have also been reported killed.

The mounting death toll — and the siege in Daraa — has only served to embolden protesters who are now demanding nothing less than the downfall of Assad's regime. There has also been growing international condemnation of the government's tactics.

The United States and Italy warned Syria it will face penalties and increasing isolation if it does not halt its violent crackdown on pro-reform demonstrators.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Syria had to know that there would be "consequences for this brutal crackdown."

Speaking at press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, Clinton said the U.S. is looking at boosting sanctions it has already imposed on Syrian leaders. Frattini said Italy would support similar measures by the European Union.

Syria blames the unrest on a foreign conspiracy and "terrorist groups" that it says have taken advantage of protests.

The uprising in Syria was sparked by the arrest of teenagers who scrawled anti-regime graffiti on a wall in Daraa. Protests spread quickly across the nation of some 23 million people.

Assad inherited power from his father in 2000.

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AP Writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Bassem Mroue can be reached at http://twitter.com/bmroue

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