Syrian army tanks fire on homes and help make arrests in Homs

Smoke seen billowing from neighbourhoods as calls from mosque loudspeakers urge people to donate blood in hospitals.

BEIRUT // Syrian security forces swept through neighbourhoods in Homs yesterday, firing machine guns and pulling people from their homes in a series of arrests, activists and residents said.

Smoke billowed from at least one area in the central city, which has experienced some of the most intense and sustained violence in recent days as President Bashar Al Assad's regime seeks to stamp out a more than four-month-old popular uprising.

Rami Abdul Rahman, the director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said tanks have closed in on neighbourhoods including Bab Dreib and Bab Sbaa, where the main raids were taking place.

He said conditions in Bab Sbaa, near the city centre, are "miserable" adding that at least one home was burnt and telecommunications had been cut in parts of the city.

He also said residents reported "a wide wave of arrests" with people being taken from their homes, but he could not give an exact figure.

Up to 50 people have been killed in Homs since the latest crackdown and sectarian violence began on Saturday, according to activists and witnesses.

A resident in the city, said mosques issued calls via loudspeakers for people to aid Bab Sbaa and urged people to donate blood in hospitals. The resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals, said Bab Sbaa has been subjected to heavy machine-gun fire since the early morning hours.

"I can see smoke billowing from the neighbourhood," the man said by telephone as heavy gunfire could be heard in the background. "We cannot leave our homes."