Perilous Times
4 August 2011 Last updated at 18:59 ET
Syria violence: 'At least 2,000 killed', says US
Activists in Syria say injured civilians are being targeted
BBC - The Syrian government is responsible for more than 2,000
deaths in its crackdown against protests, says US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton.
She spoke as an army assault against protest hub Hama was reported
to have killed dozens of people in recent days.
Residents of the city say snipers and tanks are firing on
civilians and food and medicine are running low.
Activists have dismissed a government decree to allow opposition
parties after decades of Baath party rule.
Multi-party rule was a key demand of protesters who have been
taking to the streets in large numbers across Syria since
mid-March to call for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.
Mrs Clinton repeated an earlier statement that the United States
believed Mr Assad had lost legitimacy in Syria.
"We've seen the Assad regime continue and intensify its assault
against its own people this week," she said on Thursday.
"We think to date the government is responsible for the deaths of
more than 2,000 people of all ages."
“People are being slaughtered like sheep while walking in the
street” - Hama resident
She added that the US and its allies were working to apply more
pressure on Syria beyond the addition of more individuals to a
sanctions blacklist.
Human rights have estimated that more than 1,600 civilians have
been killed since anti-government protests began in March.
At least 150 people have been killed since Sunday, mainly in Hama,
the rights groups say, as the military intensifies its efforts to
quell dissent.
Mr Assad blames the current violence on "armed criminal gangs"
backed by unspecified foreign powers.
'Sad fate'
International criticism of Syria has been mounting since the UN
Security Council adopted a statement on Wednesday condemning the
government of President Assad for "widespread violations of human
rights and the use of force against civilians".
President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, long an ally of Syria, said
Mr Assad would "face a sad fate" unless he urgently carried out
reforms and reconciled with the opposition.
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The BBC's Jim Muir says almost no information is coming from Hama,
as unverified footage claims to show tanks on the move in the city
And EU states extended their sanctions against Syria, adding more
names to a list including President Assad and 34 other people as
well as firms linked to the military. They stopped short of
targeting the oil industry and banks, however.
Dozens of people are believed to have been killed in a five-day
military assault on Hama, with residents saying on Thursday that
tanks had shot their way into Assi (Orontes) Square, in the centre
of the city of 800,000 people.
Activists said as many as 30 more people were killed in Hama late
on Wednesday, after Ramadan prayers.
Communication with the city is all but completely cut off, as are
water and electricity, correspondents say.
One resident who escaped the city on Wednesday told the BBC it
looked "exactly like a battlefield... like a Gaza Strip kind of
city. Like some villages in Iraq when the US army invaded it.
That's how it looks like".
He said artillery was firing at buildings and snipers were
shooting at anyone they saw on the streets.
Many people had left the city, he said, but for those left, food
and medicine were running low.
Another resident said "people are being slaughtered like sheep
while walking in the street.
"I saw with my own eyes one young boy on a motorcycle who was
carrying vegetables being run over by a tank," the man told
Associated Press news agency.