City still mourning its June dead comes under attack again as regime forces smash makeshift barricades As the sun was rising on the last day before Ramadan, the moment Hama’s residents had feared finally arrived. Through the barren landscape came the ominous rumble of tanks, heading towards the city from four directions as they bore down on the piles of tyres and bricks that locals had laid out across the main roads as makeshift checkpoints. “They started shooting with heavy machines guns at civilians, at the young men protecting the barricades,” said Omar Halabi, an activist in the city, speaking by Skype. “People started to scream, to say Allahu Akbar and wake each other up. They started to come down into the streets.” Few of Hama’s residents have believed they would get away with protesting in their thousands against the regime of Bashar al-Assad indefinitely, and on the eve of Ramadan, when protests are expected to intensify, the regime clearly decided it had had enough. The regime’s security forces had withdrawn from the city after the weekend of 3 June after shooting over 70 residents dead after Friday prayers. Since then thousands have poured into al-Aasi square, just steps from the Orontes river which divides the city of some 800,000 into east and west. They have carried olive branches and pink roses calling for the toppling of the regime, repeating protest chants called out from a central podium and eating food and drink given out by volunteers. The city has continued to function as people have drawn together to run their own neighbourhoods and set up barricades to prevent forces entering. But 31 July seems set to join 3 June and February 1982 – the year when Bashar’s father and former president Hafez quashed an armed Islamist revolt, killing at least 10,000 – as dates burnt on Hama’s collective memory. An ominous sign that the security forces were on their way came when water and electricity was cut in many areas, repeating a tactic in other cities prior to military incursions. The rumblings of tanks carrying soldiers could be heard as they made their way along the dusty main streets. A father of three, awoken from his sleep, told the Guardian early Saturday morning that tanks and armoured vehicles were coming into the edges of the city from all points of the compass by 5.30am. “They are shooting, trying to get into the city,” said the man who asked not be named, the sound of gunfire audible in the background. Snipers have been one of the deadliest and most effective weapons deployed by the regime during the four and a half months of protests that have gripped Syria. They were spotted on the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison, a resident told Reuters. Amateur video footage uploaded showed black smoke rising from the city and a mosque minaret being fired on. Residents reported bodies lying in the streets and the injured piling into Hourani and al-Badr hospitals as doctors called out for more blood. Some activists said many had been shot in the head, while others had been run over by tanks. A child aged five was among those killed. Many were killed as the residents tried to fight back. Two men reached in the city said the protesters refused to abandon the checkpoints, but tried to force tanks to back off. “People grabbed whatever they could and went into the streets with bare chests, walking towards the tanks with wooden bats, steel bars or stones,” Halabi said. “It was unbelievable that people were running towards the firing rather than away from it.” Most of the casualties came from among these people, but activists also reported random shooting at homes in the northern area of the city. For almost four hours residents described the shooting as continuous: a cacophony of machine gunfire mixed with the heavy thuds of tank fire. “This is not Kalashnikov fire today – it is all heavy artillery and machine guns – 500mm guns,” said Halabi. While the people were no match for tanks, several residents said that by Sunday the security forces had not reached all the central areas of the city. “We confirmed 17 tanks,” said Wissam Tarif, the head of human rights group Insan, who is in contact with residents in the city. “But people are talking of many more than that.” The death toll, circulated online by Twitter and human rights activists, rose rapidly throughout the early hours of the morning, reaching over 20 by 10am. By early afternoon the Local Coordination Committees had confirmed 49 names of the dead, Ammar Qurabi of the National Organisation for Human Rights, reported 95 while residents reached by phone told the Guardian local estimates were over 100. Despite shows of bravery, fear was palpable in the city. Some residents said they were hunkering down inside, calling people in different areas to find out the latest news. “I daren’t go further than my front gate; many people are afraid to leave the city because they fear they will be fired on,” said the father of three, reached again later in the afternoon. He said some protesters were trying to break into police stations to get weapons to defend themselves, while others had captured four snipers. Unlike other cities where some protesters report buying arms, protesters and checkpoint guards in Hama have used just stones and wooden bats. Other than the hanging of an informer on 4 June, there have been few reports of retaliatory attacks against government forces. By early afternoon some residents said the gunfire had become more intermittent. But the city is braced for more violence following alleged defections. “We confirmed an officer defecting with soldiers and two tanks. It could yet turned uglier as when soldier defect in small numbers we end up seeing a search and kill operation,” said Tarif. But bloodshed – human rights groups say over 1,600 people have been killed since mid-March – has yet to convince anti-regime protesters to kowtow. “We have come this far; we can’t go back now,” said the father in Hama. Nour Ali is the pseudonym of a journalist in Damascus Syria Bashar Al-Assad Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …“OFFICIAL —-WE HAVE A DEAL!!!!!!!!!” tweeted Indianapolis Colts’ owner Jim Irsay in caps last night, as the Colts signed Peyton Manning to a $90 million, five-year contract, reports the Indianapolis Star . The deal likely ensures the 35-year-old quarterback will stay a Colt for the rest of his career. Although the…
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Stoppage over redundancies will be followed by ‘indefinite’ NUJ work to rule The BBC is facing another day of disruption to its news programmes on Monday with many of its journalists due to go on a 24-hour strike before beginning an “indefinite” work to rule. The industrial action by the National Union of Journalists is taking place in protest over compulsory redundancies. It follows a 24-hour stoppage on 15 July which led to BBC1′s Breakfast and BBC2′s Newsnight being taken off air. There was also disruption to BBC Radio 4′s Today and the breakfast show on BBC Radio 5 Live, and the 24-hour TV news channel, BBC News. Star reporters who took part in the stoppage included BBC business editor Robert Peston and the corporation’s political editor, Nick Robinson. Michelle Stanistreet, the NUJ’s general secretary, said: “It is only two weeks since we took our last 24-hour strike action when there was a clear impact on programming and I would expect it to be another solid turnout by NUJ members across the BBC. “They are angry at the way their colleagues are being treated and I would expect there to be significant impact on programming. “It is unfortunate and our members don’t want to be in this position but they are absolutely taking this action for the right reasons.” A total of 387 posts are due to be scrapped across the BBC World Service and BBC Monitoring – of which around 100 are expected to be compulsory – following a cut in government funding. Four people have so far left the World Service after being made compulsorily redundant, with another 43 due to leave on the day of the strike. Stanistreet said there was frustration at BBC management’s approach to redeployment and described it as a “deeply baffling process” for the people involved. The NUJ claimed the BBC filled 355 posts in June, but said only 17 of them were given to people at risk of redundancy. BBC management is due to meet with all the broadcasting unions on 11 August to discuss the corporation’s approach to redundancies. One member of BBC staff privately suggested the union had “played its hand too quickly” with more widescale redundancies likely as a result of BBC director general Mark Thompson’s Delivering Quality First cost-saving initiative. But Stanistreet said: “The strong message coming to us from chapels up and down the BBC is that they know if the BBC is allowed to take this approach and force people out in this way they will carry on doing it when we face bigger cuts in the autumn.” A BBC spokesman said: “We are disappointed that the NUJ is intending to strike and apologise to our audience for any disruption to services this may cause. “Industrial action will not alter the fact that the BBC is faced with a number of potential compulsory redundancies, following significant cuts to the central government grants that support the World Service and BBC Monitoring. We will continue with our efforts to reduce the need for compulsory redundancies. “However, the number of posts that we are having to close means that unfortunately it is likely to be impossible for us to avoid some compulsory redundancies.” The BBC said the NUJ figures on redeployment were out of context and said it had “worked to redeploy staff whenever possible” including 27% of staff at risk of compulsory redundancy at the BBC World Service. As many as 1,000 further journalism posts could be lost across BBC News and the World Service as part of plans to merge the two news-gathering operations. The corporation’s news department has lost more than 400 posts over the past four years in a previous cost-cutting initiative. The strike will last for 24 hours on Monday, with the work to rule due to begin immediately afterwards. The NUJ held a 48-hour strike in November last year in protest at pension changes. BBC National Union of Journalists BBC World Service Mark Thompson TV news Media unions Radio industry Redundancy John Plunkett guardian.co.uk
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Demonstrations in 12 cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa prompt Binyamin Netanyahu to consider cancelling parliamentary recess Up to 150,000 protesters took to the streets in cities across Israel on Saturday night in the biggest demonstrations the country has seen in decades to demand action on rising house prices and rents, low salaries, the high cost of raising children and other social issues. The demonstrations, held in 12 cities including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, marked the high point of a popular protest movement that has gathered momentum over the past two weeks and shows no signs of letting up in its demands for “social justice”. Activist Daphni Leef, who initiated the first “tent village” protest in Tel Aviv against housing prices two weeks ago, told a crowd of 70,000-100,000 Israelis gathered outside the city’s main art museum that “we don’t want to replace the government, but to do more than that. We want to change the rules of the game”. About 10,000 protesters gathered outside the prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. The celebrated author David Grossman told the crowd: “The people are loyal to the state, but the state isn’t loyal to them.” Noam Shalit, the father of captured soldier Gilad Shalit, also spoke at the rally. For a country with a population of around 7 million, the numbers taking part in the demonstrations were huge. The scale of the protests and the widespread support for them among the Israeli public and in the media have seriously rattled Netanyahu. “We are now in the midst of a complicated and challenging reality, both internationally and domestically,” he told minsters at Sunday’s cabinet meeting. He warned against “irresponsible, hasty and populist steps” which could destabilise Israel’s economy, but added: “All of us, myself first and foremost … [are] aware of the genuine hardship of the cost-of-living in Israel.” Netanyahu announced a taskforce to examine ways of tackling the cost of living, and is considering postponing the parliamentary recess, due to begin at the end of this week. Meanwhile, Haim Shani, director general of the finance ministry resigned, citing differences of opinion with his political bosses. Thousands of medics joined a rally outside the Knesset (parliament) as part of a long-running work-to-rule over pay and conditions. Parents marched through Jerusalem with their children on Sunday evening in protest over the cost of child-care and baby equipment. “One-third of our combined salaries goes on kindergarten fees,” said Yaron, the father of 10-month-old twins. Workplace strikes are planned nationwide on Monday, with tens of thousands of Israelis signalling their support for a jobs “boycott” on Facebook. The Histradut, Israel’s trade union federation, might also join the protests. Another Facebook page called on Israelis to make mass cash withdrawals from ATMs on 8 August in protest at high bank charges. Although the protests began over the high cost of renting and buying homes, the dominant slogan on Saturday’s demonstrations was “the people demand social justice”. Some commentators have declared that the scale of the protests spells the end of the present rightwing coalition government. “It was the night that Binyamin Netanyahu was tossed out of the prime minister’s office in disgrace,” wrote Gideon Levy in Haaretz. “As of [Saturday] he is a lame duck … When tens of thousands of Israelis scream ‘Bibi go home’, Bibi will indeed go home. Bye bye, Bibi, goodbye for good.” However some activists have warned that without organisation, leadership and properly formulated demands, the protests risk losing momentum over the summer vacation period and could be eclipsed by the Palestinians’ expected bid for statehood at the United Nations in September. Israel Binyamin Netanyahu Middle East Protest Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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Captain accused of being drunk as tragedy follows recent Volga river sinking that killed 122 At least eight people drowned when an overcrowded pleasure boat collided with a barge on Moscow’s Moskva river. Seven people were rescued in the sinking early on Sunday morning in central Moscow, which came three weeks after a decrepit overcrowded pleasure boat sank in the Volga river, killing 122 of the 201 people on board. Revellers had gathered on the small boat, called the Lastochka, to celebrate the 31st birthday of a Turkish citizen, according to news reports. Survivors said the owner’s ship and captain, who died in the sinking, had been drinking. “Rescued passengers say the captain, Gennady Zinger, was drunk and didn’t let anyone steer the boat,” Pavel Seliverstov, the head of Moscow’s investigative committee on transport, told the tabloid Life News. Witnesses said the ship was manoeuvring wildly on the river. It sank at about 1am after crashing into a barge. Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia’s investigative committee, told Russian news agencies the boat was built to carry 12 passengers, but 17 boarded. One passenger disembarked during the nighttime voyage, he said. Markin said Zinger had been fined three times, including as recently as June, for violating safety rules on the boat. The incident shook a country still reeling from the 10 July sinking of the Bulgaria, an overcrowded vessel loaded mainly with women and children when it sank in the Volga. The tragedy highlighted the poor state of Russian infrastructure, as well as the ubiquity of corruption in the country. The Soviet-era boat had been having engine troubles before leaving port, and was carrying nearly twice the number of passengers it was than its licence allowed to. The head of the company that rented the Bulgaria and the inspector who declared the boat fit to sail have both been arrested. President Dmitry Medvedev reacted harshly to the Volga sinking: “Everyone involved in organising this should bear responsibility. “Next time, every official, regardless of his rank, will understand that consequences for such a ship leaving a port can be not only disciplinary, but criminal.” The tragedy came as Russia held nationwide celebrations for Navy Day. Russia Europe Miriam Elder guardian.co.uk
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Department of Health says compulsory question about donation is aimed at giving people more opportunities to sign up Anyone applying for a driving licence from Monday will be obliged to answer a question about joining the organ donor register, the health department has announced, in an attempt to boost the numbers of potential donors. Those applying for a licence online will be obliged to tick one of three boxes about the register as a condition of completing the form. They can say they would like to sign up there and then, that they are already on the register or that they would like to think about it on another occasion. A similar question existed previously but it was optional and many applicants missed or ignored it. The change is the latest salvo in a long-running campaign by the Department of Health to increase the number of organ donors, which currently stands at about 18 million – 29% of the population. While the numbers signing up has risen significantly in recent years, they are not keeping pace with an ever-increasing demand for transplants, caused in part by less healthy lifestyles – for example, adult-onset diabetes with associated kidney failure. The previous Labour government considered the idea of presumed consent, in which people would have to actively opt out if they did not wish to donate organs after their death. However, a consultation taskforce concluded in 2008 (pdf) that it would be possible to instead significantly increase the rate of donation under existing laws. Monday’s change, involving licence applications in England, Scotland and Wales, is a key part of this, given that about half of the approximately 1m new names on the organ donation register every year currently come through driving licence applications. The intention, said Chris Rudge, national clinical director for transplantation at the Department of Health, was to give people as many opportunities as possible to sign up. “From various polls and surveys we know two things: one, virtually everybody in the country would accept an organ transplant if they needed one to save their own life; but we also know that a very large majority – probably of the order of 90% – are in favour of donating organs after death,” he said. “There’s a variety of reasons why they don’t put their name on the organ donor register, but by far the most common is they just don’t get round to it.” If the change to the driving licence form brought in significantly more donors, similar questions could be added in the future to other official online forms, Rudge said. “But I think we have to be a little bit cautious about not barraging people with this. If people are continually asked the same question, over and over again, you get irritated by it.” More than 7,500 people are awaiting an organ transplant and an average of three die every day, according to the NHS Blood and Transplant service. Ahead of Transplant Week earlier this month, the service released figures showing that, despite the bigger pool of potential donors, patients face increasingly long delays, with the average wait for a new kidney rising 20% over three years. The department is particularly keen to boost donor register membership among black and Asian communities, which comprise less than 2% of the register but more than a quarter of those awaiting transplants. Organ donation Public services policy Health Health policy Transport policy Transport Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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Middle-ranking universities may offer scholarships to lure AAB-grade students or higher away from elite universities The highest performing A-level candidates could be tempted with cut-price deals on tuition fees from next year, as some English universities face increased pressure to maintain student numbers. Sir Steve Smith, president of the vice-chancellors’ umbrella group Universities UK, said in an interview that the highest-achieving students will be “gold dust” in the new system, due to come in next year. He said universities that currently attract a small proportion of students with the best grades would face difficult decisions: “They are going to have to work out if they start ‘buying’ AAB students. “One of the implications is that those students become like gold dust for their reputation. So you might have an incredibly strong series of incentives.” Reforms proposed by the government will allow institutions to take on unlimited numbers of students who achieve AAB or higher at A-level. There will also be extra places for cheaper institutions that charge an average fee of £7,500 or less. The reforms, outlined in a white paper, effectively squeeze middle-ranking universities that charge high fees, removing some of their best-performing applicants who are likely to be targeted by elite institutions. Some universities are preparing to drop their fees in response, so they can gain extra places under the £7,500 threshold. The coalition’s proposals mark a radical change from the current system in which each university is allocated a fixed number of government-funded places for home undergraduates each autumn. Among the first to offer a deal to entice high-fliers is the University of Kent, which will give £2,000 scholarships to any recruit for 2012 who gains three As in their A-levels, regardless of family income. The prospect of cheaper deals for high achievers was criticised by Gareth Thomas, the shadow universities minister, who said the money should be spent on widening access to students from poorer backgrounds. Nearly a third of students achieving AAB or above are from private schools and 20% of those achieving the highest grades at state sixth forms are in grammar schools. Thomas said: “If vital money to help those from less well-off backgrounds is instead being used by universities as a marketing gimmick because they are worried about a drop in student places, this is yet another sign that the government didn’t think through their plans in the white paper or the trebling of tuition fees.” The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which is responsible for universities, said: “As long as universities are meeting their access agreements, it is up to them how much they charge. We don’t disagree with what they are doing. “Universities need to meet tough new criteria for attracting the brightest students from lower income backgrounds, including offering fee waivers and bursaries. These additional scholarships will help universities to attract the brightest and the best students.” In an interview with the Sunday Times, Smith, who is vice-chancellor of Exeter University as well as being head of Universities UK, predicted that application numbers are likely to be down by at least 10% in 2012 because of student fears of debt and a fall in the number of school-leavers. This could put more pressure on universities to cut fees. He also said he expected to record substantial numbers of courses closing, particularly in sciences, as many universities decide they can no longer afford to run expensive, laboratory-based degrees. He warned that universities could be faced with European Union applicants “flooding in”, because it will be virtually impossible to force them to repay their student loans once they return to their home countries. Higher education Students Access to university A-levels Schools Tuition fees Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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Pilot dies from burns and teenage passenger remains critical after light aircraft crashed between two houses on Friday One of two men injured in a plane crash on Friday has died, police have said. The men suffered extensive burns after their light aircraft crashed between two semi-detached houses in Salford, Greater Manchester shortly after takeoff and burst into flames. A Greater Manchester police spokesman said the 59-year-old pilot died on Sunday morning and his 19-year-old passenger remained in a critical condition in hospital. The single-engine Piper PA38 Tomahawk aircraft left City Airport Manchester on Friday afternoon, flying only a short distance before coming down and hitting the two homes in Newlands Avenue, Eccles. Extensive structural damage was caused to one of the properties. No one apart from the occupants of the aircraft, operated by Ravenair Flying School, was injured. A spokeswoman for North West ambulance service said: “There were two patients on board who both suffered burns.” She said the pilot had 70% burns, while the passenger suffered 60% burns. They were taken by air ambulance to Wythenshawe hospital. Greater Manchester fire and rescue service station commander Paul Duggan said neighbours rushed to help the stricken pilot and his passenger, who had landed “fairly neatly” between the two homes at numbers seven and nine Newlands Avenue. He said: “The plane had also caught fire, so a number of people, including an occupant of the property, two passersby and a passing police officer, then tried to fight the fire by putting water on it. “That was fairly successful but not until some burns had been sustained by the occupants of the aircraft. “One occupant of the plane was removed quite quickly but the second had to be cut from the wreckage.” Structural engineers from Salford city council assessed the damage to the two buildings and arranged temporary accommodation for the two families affected. A spokeswoman for City Airport said: “The Civil Aviation Authority has been informed, as has the Department of Transport’s air accident investigation branch. “The aircraft was operated by Ravenair Flying School. Investigations are now under way by both the emergency services and the AAIB.” Plane crashes Air transport Manchester guardian.co.uk
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Official inquiry into Iraq war expected to focus on former prime minister’s failure to consult the cabinet fully in run-up to invasion Tony Blair is likely to be criticised heavily by the official inquiry into the Iraq war, which is expected to focus on his failure to consult the cabinet fully in the run-up to the 2003 invasion. The Mail on Sunday reports today that Sir John Chilcot, the former permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office who is chairing the inquiry, has identified a series of concerns. These include: • failing to keep cabinet ministers fully informed of Blair’s plans in the run-up to the invasion in March 2003. The committee is understood to have been impressed by the criticism voiced by Lord Butler of Brockwell, the former cabinet secretary, that Blair ran a sofa government. • failing to make proper preparations for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq. • failing to present intelligence in a proper way. In his inquiry into the use of intelligence, published in July 2004, Butler said the usual MI6 caveats were stripped out of the famous Downing Street arms dossier of September 2002. • failing to be open with ministers about understandings Blair reached with George Bush in the year running up to the invasion. Blair today hit out at the Mail on Sunday. A source close to the former prime minister said: “This is a deliberate attempt to pre-judge a report that hasn’t even been written yet.” Angus Robertson, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said: “The tapestry of deceit woven by Tony Blair over the past decade has finally unravelled. Despite his best attempts to fudge the issue when he was called to give evidence, the Chilcot inquiry have recognised the former prime minister’s central role in leading the UK into worst foreign policy disaster in recent history. “While no inquiry will ever bring back those lost in Iraq, this comprehensive review by Sir John Chilcot will at least provide some explanation of the decisions which led to the disastrous invasion.” There has been speculation at senior levels of Whitehall that Chilcot and the members of his inquiry are planning to criticise Blair when they publish their report in the autumn. Some members of the inquiry, including the former British ambassador to Moscow Sir Rod Lyne, put Blair under pressure in his two appearances before them. Members of the inquiry have said in private to former colleagues in Whitehall that the best way to gauge the inquiry’s findings is to identify areas that have been raised repeatedly by Chilcot and his team. Three key areas which fall into this category are the lack of proper cabinet consultation, the use of intelligence, and the failure to make preparations for the post-war reconstruction. It is expected that the inquiry will take a dim view of the Downing Street dossier on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, published on 24 September 2002. This included the notorious claim that Iraq could launch a WMD attack in 45 minutes. In launching the report, Blair told an emergency session of the Commons: “His [Saddam Hussein's] weapons of mass destruction programme is active, detailed and growing. The policy of containment is not working. The weapons of mass destruction programme is not shut down; it is up and running now.” Blair later stated he was wrong to have been so categorical about Iraq’s WMD programme. The inquiry is likely to criticise Alastair Campbell, Blair’s former director of communications, who was instrumental in drawing up the dossier. Campbell has always maintained that Sir John Scarlett, then chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, was in charge of the dossier. But Major General Michael Laurie told the inquiry in a letter in May that the dossier was designed to “make the case for war”. Campbell wrote back to the inquiry to say: “Witnesses who were directly involved in the drafting of the dossier have made clear to several inquiries that at no time did I put anyone in the intelligence community under pressure, or say to them or anyone else that the then prime minister’s purpose in publishing the dossier was to make the case for war.” The inquiry is also expected to focus on Blair’s assurances to Bush in the run-up to the Iraq war. Blair rejects criticism that he told the former president in a meeting at his Texas ranch in April 2002 that he would support an invasion as long as the US agreed to try to secure agreement from the United Nations. In addition, the inquiry will address the failure to make adequate preparations for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq. Major General Tim Cross, who was attached to the US post-war Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, told the inquiry of a meeting he had with Blair on 18 March 2003, two days before the invasion. In written evidence, he said: “I told him that there was no clarity on what was going to be needed after the military phase of the operation, nor who would provide it. Although I was confident that we would secure a military victory, I offered my view that we should not begin that campaign until we had a much more coherent postwar plan.” Cross told the inquiry in person in December 2009: “He nodded and didn’t say anything particular. I didn’t expect him to look me in the eye and say, ‘This is terrible, we are going to pull the whole thing off.’ I was just one of a number of people briefing him.” Tony Blair Iraq Middle East Iraq war inquiry Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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Syrian troops’ assault on opposition stronghold appears to be part of nationwide offensive ahead of start of Ramadan Scores of people have been shot dead and there were reports of bodies lying in the streets of the opposition stronghold of Hama following a tank assault as Syrian troops unleashed an apparent nationwide offensive targeting protesters against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Videos posted online showed columns of black smoke rising from Hama after tanks moved in at dawn, with witnesses reporting indiscriminate firing at citizens. Residents shouted “God is great!” and threw firebombs and stones at the tanks as they pushed through the city. Assad’s forces also opened fire in the eastern cities of Deir Ezzor and Al Boukamal and the southern town of Hirak. “The tanks came into the city around 5.30am from four different directions,” a Hama resident said by telephone, as gunfire was heard in the background. “They ran over some of the makeshift checkpoints and there is gun and tank fire,” he said. The death toll continues to rise, with activists saying at least 40 people may have been killed in Hama alone. Bodies were reported to be piling up in hospitals, where doctors were calling for blood donations. The foreign secretary, William Hague, condemned the assault. “I am appalled by the reports that the Syrian security forces have stormed Hama with tanks and other heavy weapons this morning killing dozens of people, he said. “Such action against civilians who have been protesting peacefully in large numbers in the city for a number of weeks has no justification.” Those confirmed dead include Khaled al-Hamed who, activists from the Local Coordination Committees said, was shot and then run over by one of the tanks while attempting to flee from his neighbourhood. In what appears to be a coordinated nationwide assault on the eve of Ramadan, the military moved into Deir Ezzor and Al Boukamal on Saturday, according to activists and residents, with reports of a further 10 people shot dead there on Sunday. Four people were killed after forces entered the southern town of Hirak, close to the southern city of Deraa where protests first broke out en masse, the Local Coordination Committees said. More than 200 people were also arrested in Moadimiyeh, close to Damascus, in dawn raids. Activists say they believe the regime is trying to scare people off the streets before Ramadan, when protests are expected to intensify after daily evening prayers. “It’s a massacre. They want to break Hama before the month of Ramadan,” a witness who identified himself by his first name, Ahmed, told The Associated Press by telephone from Hama. He said he had seen up to 12 people shot dead in the streets in a district known as the Baath neighbourhood. Most had been shot in the chest and head, he said. A doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Reuters that the city’s Badr, al-Horani and Hikmeh hospitals had received 24 bodies. “There are bodies uncollected in the streets,” said another resident, adding that army snipers had positioned themselves on the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison. Tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute in and around northern Hama, residents said. The now notorious government official Reem Haddad, who has provoked comparisons with Iraq’s Comical Ali for insisting on absurd explanations for the brutal government responses to protests, told al-Jazeera that forces had entered Hama because people could not go about their daily life. “It’s as if it belongs to another planet,” she said. Human rights groups say 1,600 civilians have died in the crackdown on the largely peaceful protests since mid-March and thousands have been detained. But the bloodshed has only served to rally more people to the streets, while the regime has focused on consolidating its support base. After offers of dialogue and reforms accompanied by raids, killings and arrests failed to kowtow protesters, the regime appears to have decided to escalate its use of brute force. “The attack [on Hama] appears to be part of a coordinated effort across a number of towns in Syria to deter the Syrian people from protesting in advance of Ramadan, Hague said. “President Bashar is mistaken if he believes that oppression and military force will end the crisis in his country. He should stop this assault on his own people now.” Hama has become the epicentre of demonstrations with thousands taking to central al-Aasi square after government forces moved out of the city following the shooting dead of more than 70 people on 3 June. While protesters have controlled the streets, government forces have surrounded the city since the start of July and conducted overnight raids. Before the assault on Hama, electricity and water supplies had been cut, activists said, in a tactic regularly used by the regime before entering towns. Analysts say the regime had been holding off from attacking Hama because of its historical sensitivity. In 1982, at least 10,000 people were killed in the Sunni city of 800,000 when the army put down an armed Islamist revolt against the rule of Assad’s late father, Hafez. Earlier this month the US and French ambassadors made a visit to the city to show solidarity with the protesters, while the Turkish prime minister, Recip Tayyip Erdogan, has said there must not be “another Hama” in reference to 1982 massacre. There were also reports this weekend of a Syrian army colonel saying he had founded an army of defectors after fleeing with hundreds of soldiers. The man, identifying himself as Colonel Riad al-Asaad, told AFP: “I am the commander of the Syrian Free Army” and warned against any attack on Deir Ezzor. Amateur footage circulating online also purported to show soldiers defecting in Hama, including one video showing soldiers kissing protesters. Nour Ali is the pseudonym of a journalist in Damascus Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest guardian.co.uk
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