Syrian forces shoot dead six in Hama: activists (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) ? Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad shot dead six people on Tuesday in the Syrian city of Hama, activists said, and France called for the United Nations to stand up against the latest "ferocious armed repression."

Tanks were still surrounding Hama, days after it witnessed some of the biggest protests against Assad's rule since a 14-week uprising erupted in March.

The attacks focused on two districts north of the Orontes River, which splits the city of 650,000 people in half. Residents said the dead included two brothers, Baha and Khaled al-Nahar, who were killed at a roundabout.

Some residents of Hama, scene of a bloody crackdown by Assad's father nearly 30 years ago, had sought to halt any military advance, blocking roads between neighborhoods with garbage containers, burning tyres, wood and metal.

Tuesday's raid by security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad followed the killings of at least three people when troops and security police entered Hama at dawn on Monday.

"Yet again, the Syrian regime has chosen repression and the use of armed forces against its population, which only wants the right to exercise its fundamental rights," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said the world could not stand "inactive and powerless" in the face of the violence.

"We are hoping that the Security Council adopt a clear and firm position and we call on all the members of the Security Council to take responsibility in light of this dramatic situation with a Syrian population subjected day after day to an unacceptable, ferocious and implacable armed repression."

France, unlike its European partners and the United States, says Assad has lost legitimacy to rule. But a French campaign for U.N. condemnation of the crackdown has met stiff Russian and Chinese resistance, shielding Syria from greater isolation.

HAMA SYMBOLISM

"Assad may wait to see whether large-scale protests in Hama continue. He knows that using military aggression against peaceful demonstrations in a symbolic place like Hama would lose him support even from Russia and China," Syrian activist Mohammad Abdallah told Reuters from exile in Washington.

Abdallah said using tanks to attack Hama would "totally discredit" a promise by Assad to seek dialogue with his opponents. Troops and armor were already assaulting villages and towns in the Jabal-al-Zawya region, north of Hama, which had also seen large protests against Assad's 11-year rule, he said.

Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000, sent troops into Hama in 1982 to crush an Islamist-led uprising in the city, where the Fighting Vanguard, the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, made its last stand.

That attack killed many thousands, possibly up to 30,000, and one slogan shouted constantly by Hama protesters in the past several weeks was "Damn your soul Hafez," a reminder of the scar still etched in the memory of the city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said tanks stormed the town of Kfar Nubbul early on Tuesday "without meeting a single shot in the town that has seen peaceful protests since the beginning of the uprising."

Authorities have prevented most independent media from operating in Syria, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and authorities.

Rights groups say Syrian security forces have shot and killed at least 1,300 civilians across the country since the protests started and arrested over 12,000, with several troops and police officers killed for refusing to fire at civilians.

Authorities say 500 police and soldiers have been killed by gunmen, who they blame for most civilian deaths.

Assad has promised a national dialogue with the opposition to discuss political reform in Syria, which has been under the iron rule of the Baath Party for nearly 50 years.

Many opposition figures reject dialogue while the killings and arrests continue. The United States said last week Assad was running out of time to allow a serious political process, and would otherwise face increasingly organised resistance.

(Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage, Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/un/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110705/wl_nm/us_syria

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