Dozens killed as Syria army storms Hama

AMMAN, (Reuters) – Syrian tanks firing shells and  machineguns stormed the city of Hama today, killing at least  45 civilians in a move to crush demonstrations against President  Bashar al-Assad’s rule, residents and activists said.
Assad’s forces began their assault on the city, scene of a  1982 massacre, at dawn after besieging it for nearly a month.  The official state news agency said scores of were on rooftops  and “shooting intensively to terrorize citizens”.
But residents said tanks and snipers were shooting at  unarmed residential districts, where inhabitants had set up  makeshift road blocks to try and stop their advance, and that an  irregular Alawite militia loyal to Assad, known as ‘shabbiha’  accompanied the invading forces in buses.
Hama has particular significance for the anti-Assad movement  as Assad’s father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, sent in  troops to crush an Islamist-led uprising there in 1982, razing  whole neighbourhoods and killing up to 30,000 people in the  bloodiest episode of Syria’s modern history.
The president and the ruling family are from the minority  Alawite sect, which has dominated Syria, a majority Sunni  country, since the ruling Baath Party took power in a 1963 coup.
In 2000, Assad succeeded his late father, keeping the  autocratic political system he inherited intact, while expanding  the share of the Assad family of the economy through monopolies  awarded to relatives and  friends.
Citing hospital officials, the Syrian Observatory for Human  Rights said the death toll in Hama was likely to rise, with  dozens badly wounded in the attack.
A doctor, who did not want to be further identified for fear  of arrest, told Reuters that most bodies were taken to the  city’s Badr, al-Horani and Hikmeh hospitals.
Scores of people were wounded and blood for transfusions was  in short supply, he said by telephone from the city, which has a  population of around 700,000.
“Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing  their heavy machineguns randomly and overrunning makeshift road  blocks erected by the inhabitants,” the doctor said, the sound  of machinegun fire crackling in the background.
The state news agency said military units were fighting  gunmen armed with rocket propelled grenades and machineguns.
“Armed groups in Hama set police stations on fire,  vandalised public and private property, set roadblocks and  barricades and burned tyres at the entrance of the city and in  its streets.”
Yasser Saadeldine, a Syrian Islamist living in exile in  Qatar, said the attack of Hama marks a significant escalation in  Assad’s reliance on the military to try and crush the uprising.
“Assad has chosen to dig deeper into the security option,  especially with a retreat in the tough international and  regional stances against the regime,” Saadedine told Reuters.
“Assad is trying to resolve the matter before Ramadan when  every daily fasting prayer threatens to become another Friday.  But he is pouring oil on a burning fire and now the Hama  countryside is rising in revolt ,” said Saadedine, in reference  the Muslim holy month, which begins in Syria tomorrow.
Another resident said that in today’s assault, bodies were  lying uncollected in the streets and so the death toll would  rise. Army snipers had climbed onto the roofs of the state-owned  electricity company and the main prison, he said.