AMMAN (Reuters)-security forces deployed in a suburb of the Syrian capital and in the city of Banias on Tuesday, witnesses said, even if President Bashar al-Assad has international criticism for sending in tanks to crush a rebellion.
In Deraa said the city where the rebellion against Assad the 11-year rule began, authorities sent in tanks on Monday, and witnesses the army was firing randomly and bodies were lying on the streets.
Residents said an army brigade led by Assad's younger brother who Maher roads were cut off, were shelling houses, storming houses and people round.
International criticism of Assad the crackdown, now in its sixth week was initially muted but after the death of 100 protesters on Friday and Assad made the decision to storm Deraa, which his father 1982 repression of Islamists in Hama echoed escalated.
European Governments called upon Syria to end the violence.
"We will send a powerful appeal to Damascus authorities to stop the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations," said the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Tuesday at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Rome.
Britain's Defence Minister Liam Fox called for reform in Syria, but said that there are limits to what other countries could do to stop violence against the protesters against the Government.
Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal suggested the European Union to suspend aid to Damascus and impose an arms embargo and sanctions against its leaders.
More than 2000 security police were deployed in the suburb of Damascus Douma on Tuesday, manning roadblocks and checking the identity of the inhabitants, a witness told Reuters.
The witness, a former army Member who wanted to not be identified, said he saw several trucks in the streets equipped with heavy machine guns and said men who he believed were members of the secret police of plain clothes were carrying guns. Bus loads of soldiers, which he presumably Republican Guard, in full combat gear also started deploying the suburb.
Security forces also deployed in the hills around the coastal town of Banias, where protesters chanted: "people want the overthrow of the regime," said an activist of human rights.
Residents in Deraa, reached by telephone, said black smoke from all parts of the city and that heavy artillery was rising and Kalashnikov rounds were heard from the old town.
"In the street that I'm in there are about 10 tanks. Their goal is simply to destroy ... They are shelling of houses and demolishing them, "said Khaldoun Abu.
"Maher al-Assad the forces have scattered everywhere and with their roadblocks Deraa has a large prison. You can't go without risking your life, "said his cousin, Abu Tamer. "They are rounding up dozens of people and arresting them."
Residents said it was not clear how many people had been killed, as the army pushed in Deraa and that they were not allowed to go to the bodies in the streets.
Shot dead-400 citizens security forces in a campaign to crush the revolt against the domination of Assad, Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah said on Tuesday. Another 500 people had been arrested in the last two days, it said.
FORCE NOT REFORMS
Washington said on Monday it was considering targeted sanctions against Syria, while in Turkey, Syrian opposition pleaded for international aid.
"Our friends in the West, in Turkey, in the Arab world, if they want to help us, then they can do that by ... The clearest possible pressure on the Syrian regime to stop targeting civilians, "Anas Abdah, the British-based President of the movement for Justice and development, told Reuters.
Activists said that the military movement showed that Assad had decided on strength, not reforms, to deal with protests inspired by Arab uprisings which the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia overthrown.
Ali Al Atassi, an activist whose father imprisoned for 22 years under Hafez al-Assad, said "another Hama" was impossible, referring to the 1982 crackdown that killed thousands.
"This regime does not understand that the world has changed, that the Arab region has changed and that the Syrian people has changed. They are still imprisoned in the past and those who are not at the right time to change, they will be forced to change. "
Last week Assad lifted Syria of 48-year state of emergency and a hated State Security Court abolished. But the next day 100 people were killed during the protests across the country.
Despite his father's deepening alliance with Iran, clawing back influence in Lebanon and backing militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, Assad has held frontline Syria with Israel peacefully and indirect peace talks with the Jewish State.
MUTED ARAB REACTION
Criticism of its crackdown was at first, partly due to the fear that a collapse of the minority Alawite Assad could line up sectarian conflict in the majority Sunni, restrained and because Washington had hoped to dissolve the Alliance with Syria and Iran a peace agreement with Israel to promote.
Arab States, some of them put down protests in their own territory, even apart from criticizing Assad, although the Arab League of 22 Member said Tuesday pro-democracy demonstrators in the whole region "deserve support, not bullets."
Amnesty International, citing sources in Deraa, said at least 23 people were killed when tanks shelled Deraa on Monday. The Security Council should the situation in Syria refer to the International Criminal Court, it said.
The White House, deploring the "brutal violence used by the Government of Syria against its people," said President Barack Obama's administration is considering targeted sanctions.
Syria since 2004 to support militant groups among U.S. sanctions. Several Syrian officials, among them are Assad nephew Rami Makhlouf, a tycoon, under specific sanctions regimes of the U.S. for "public corruption."
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