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BEIRUT (AP) — Tanks took over a main square in the besieged Syrian
city of Hama and electricity and telephone phone lines were cut off
Wednesday as President Bashar Assad’s regime showed no signs of
halting the intense military assault against an uprising now in its
fifth month, activists said.
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At least three tanks took up position in Hama’s central Assi
square, which had been thronged by hundreds of thousands of
anti-regime protesters in the weeks before the latest crackdown in
some the largest demonstrations against Assad’s rule.
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For the past four days, Syrian troops have tightened their siege on
Hama, sending residents fleeing for their lives. The death toll
since Sunday has reached around 100 people, but the exact figure is
difficult to verify, according to activists.
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Activists reported a new military push into the city early
Wednesday, with fresh explosions and machine gun fire heard in many
parts of the city.
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“We are being subjected to shelling, machine gun fire, snipers
fire, everything you can think of,” said activist Omar
al-Hamawi.
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Electricity and telephone lines were cut Wednesday morning but
mobile phone lines appeared to have been partially restored by
early afternoon.
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Al-Hamawy, reached by phone, said the shelling was mostly targeting
al-Hader neighborhood. He said sporadic tank and gunfire was also
heard in various other parts of the city. He spoke briefly saying
he had to save his phone battery to call and check on
relatives.
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Telephone calls to other activists and Hama residents were not
going through.
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“Early this morning people heard the sound of bombs,” said Rami
Abdul-Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights. “Then the phone lines were cut.”
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He says residents on the outskirts of Hama reported seeing lines of
tanks heading toward the city early in the day, and the blasts were
heard soon after.
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The observatory relies on a network of sources on the ground
throughout Syria.
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The Hama operation has drawn a fresh wave of international
condemnation against a regime defying the growing calls to end its
crackdown on anti-government protesters.
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday met with
U.S.-based Syrian democracy activists as the Obama administration
weighed new sanctions on Syria. Congressional calls also mounted
for action against Assad’s regime.
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Italy recalled Tuesday its ambassador to Syria “in the face of the
horrible repression against the civil population” by the
government, which launched a new push against protesters as the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan began Monday.
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It was the first European Union country to pull its ambassador, and
the measure came a day after the EU tightened sanctions on
Syria.
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The mounting international outcry has had no apparent effect so far
in Syria, an autocratic country that relies on Iran as a main ally
in the region.
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About 1,700 civilians have been killed since the largely peaceful
protests against Assad’s regime began in mid- March, according to
tallies by activists.
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Syria has banned independent media coverage and has prevented most
foreign journalists from entering the country, preventing
independent assessments of the events.
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Hama, the focus of the crackdown, has a history of
defiance.
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In 1982, Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, ordered the military to quell
a rebellion by Syrian members of the conservative Muslim
Brotherhood movement. The city was sealed off and bombs dropped
from above smashed swaths of the city and killed between 10,000 and
25,000 people, rights groups say.
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The real number may never be known. Then, as now, reporters were
not allowed to reach the area.
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