Tanks enter Syrian city

2011-08-20 11:00

Nicosia - Tanks entered the central city of Homs at dawn on Saturday a day after more than 30 people were killed across Syria in crackdowns on anti-regime protests, a rights group reported.

"Several tanks took up positions at dawn in the district of al-Khalidiyeh," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

"Throughout the night and this morning shots were heard from Al-Khalidiyeh to Baba Amr and Inshaat," he added, referring to two other central locations in the city of Homs.

Syrian forces killed 31 protesters after weekly Friday prayers, including 13 in the Homs region, five of them in al-Khalidiyeh during a rally against President Bashar al-Assad.

The assaults came after Assad told UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday that his security forces had ended operations against civilians.

- AFP