Syrian tanks shell Latakia, death toll reaches 34

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian tanks fired on poor Sunni Muslim districts in the port city of Latakia on Tuesday, the fourth day of an assault which has killed dozens and forced thousands of Palestinian refugees to flee, activists said.

A senior Palestinian official described the military offensive in the city as "a crime against humanity", adding to Arab condemnation of President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on popular demonstrations calling for his overthrow.

After five months of unrest, Assad, from Syria's minority Alawite community, has broadened and intensified the military assault against main urban centres of protest since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on August 1.

"Heavy machinegun fire and explosions hit al-Raml al-Filistini and al-Shaab this morning," a resident who lives near the two districts of Latakia told Reuters by telephone. Many Palestinian refugees live in the former area.

Firing subsided but intermittent tank fire continued.

The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, an activists' group, said six people were killed in Latakia on Monday, bringing the reported civilian death toll there to 34.

A senior Palestinian official condemned the violence, which the United Nations said had forced between 5,000 and 10,000 Palestinians to flee the Al Raml refugee camp in Latakia.

"The shelling is taking place using gunships and tanks on houses built from tin, on people who have no place to run to or even a shelter to hide in," Yasser Abed Rabbo, the West Bank-based PLO secretary general, told Reuters.

"This is a crime against humanity."

NATIONWIDE SWEEP

The United Nations agency which cares for Palestinian refugees said on Monday four had been killed and 17 wounded. "Our fear is that, without access, the figures are higher but we simply don't know," UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said.

Residents of Latakia say security forces have targeted areas where demonstrators have been protesting against 41 years of Assad family rule.

Syrian forces have already stormed Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by the military under Assad's father, the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, the southern city of Deraa and several northwestern towns in a province bordering Turkey.

In Deir al-Zor, residents said the army pulled out anti-aircraft guns from the city, but armoured personnel carriers remained at main junctions and troops, accompanied by military intelligence, stormed houses looking for wanted dissidents.

"The regime seems intent on breaking the bones of the uprising across the country this week, but the people are not backing down. Demonstrations in Deir al-Zor are regaining momentum," one activist in the city said.

State news agency SANA said on Tuesday Syrian forces had begun pulling out after "ridding the city of armed groups".

TURKISH CONCERN

Turkey's foreign ministry denied a report it was planning to set up some form of buffer zone in the Syrian border area, where Syrian troops have pursued people fleeing for Turkey.

Syrian authorities blame others for the violence, saying anti-government forces have killed 500 soldiers and police. Rights groups say at least 1,700 civilians have been killed by security forces since protests erupted in March.

Assad has been repeatedly warned by the United States, European Union and Turkey to halt the bloodshed but said last week his army would "not relent in pursuing terrorist groups".

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Assad to halt such military operations now or face unspecified consequences.

"This is our final word to the Syrian authorities, our first expectation is that these operations stop immediately and unconditionally," Davutoglu said on Monday in Turkey's strongest warning yet to its once close ally and neighbour.

Turkish leaders, who have urged Assad to end violence and pursue reforms in Syria, which has a 75 percent Sunni majority, have grown frustrated. Davutoglu held talks with the Syrian leader in Damascus last week.

OVERWHELMING FORCE

Assad, who inherited power in 2000 from his father, clearly believes overwhelming force will extinguish calls for the dismantling of the police state and the Assad clan's power monopoly, free elections and an end to corruption.

For Assad to enact the reforms he has been promising since he came to power, he would have to purge the establishment of his most powerful allies and end the control of the security apparatus over the state. Since they are the foundation of his power, that is unlikely.

Yasser Saad, a dissident Syrian political commentator, said Turkey was concerned about the fate of Sunni co-religionists in Latakia, "with sectarian build-up escalating in the region, from Iran to Iraq to Lebanon and the Gulf".

"The popular Syrian movement still regards the Alawite community as an important part of the national mosaic," Saad said. "The notables of the community have to declare a clear stand regarding the crimes of the regime and not allow the sect to be used as human shields that falls with the fall of the regime."

In Tartous, a small city south of Latakia with a large Alawite population and a Russian naval base, thousands marched on Monday to "affirm national unity and support for the comprehensive reform programme being led by President Bashar al-Assad," SANA news agency said. Authorities have previously organised such pro-Assad rallies.

The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union said troops also assaulted villages on the Houla plain north of Homs on Monday, killing eight people as they raided houses and made arrests. The organisation said four people were also killed in Homs.

Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said it had the names of at least 260 civilians, including 14 women and two infants, killed so far this month.

It said the actual toll was likely to be far higher with scant information so far from the hard-hit city of Hama, still besieged by troops and secret police. In 1982, some 20,000 people were killed there, and entire neighbourhoods razed, as Assad's father put down an Islamist revolt.

Syria has expelled most independent media since the unrest began, making it hard to verify reports from the country.

Naval ships shelled southern parts of Latakia on Sunday, residents and rights groups said. Authorities have denied Latakia was shelled from the sea, adding that two police and four gunmen were killed when security forces pursued "armed men who were terrorising residents".

Nightly anti-Assad rallies after Ramadan prayers have drawn around 20,000 people in different areas of the city, said one witness, a university student.

Unlike most Syrian cities, which are mainly Sunni, Latakia has a large Alawite population, partly because Assad and his father before him encouraged Alawites to move to the town from their nearby mountain region by offering them cheap land and jobs in the public sector and security apparatus.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Labib Nasir in Ramallah and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)