REUTERS: President Bashar al-Assad has sent tanks deep into Syria's third city Homs, escalating a military campaign to crush a seven-week-old uprising against his autocratic rule.
Syrians demanding political freedom and an end to corruption have held weeks of what they say are peaceful demonstrations in the face of government repression, despite a civilian death toll that has reached 800, according to the Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah.
On Sunday, Homs residents told Reuters they heard machinegun fire and shelling as troops made their first incursion into residential areas of the city of one million people, 165 km (100 miles) north of Damascus.
At least one person, a 12-year-old child, was killed when tanks and troops charged into the Bab Sebaa, Bab Amro and Tal al-Sour districts of Homs overnight, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. » | Khaled Yacoub Oweis | AMMAN | Sunday, May 08, 2011
