Syria tightens screws on Homs

The Syrian army consolidated its grip on the hotbed city of Homs on Sunday, activists said, as embattled President Bashar al-Assad sacked the governor of a flashpoint province 48 hours after massive anti-regime protests.
Security forces also rounded up hundreds of civilians in Damascus and made arrests near Homs and in the town of Sarakeb in the north-western province of Idlib near the Turkish border, activists said.
In Homs, troops backed by tanks "deployed heavily in Duar al-Fakhura and around the neighbourhood of Al-Nazihin," said Abdel Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights.
He said the army could be "preparing to carry out a military and security operation in the region." The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported a new military deployment in Homs, quoting an activist in the central city.
"Eight tanks entered the city from the Duar al-Jawwiya area and deployed in the streets linking Al-Khalidiyeh" neighbourhood to two others in the area, the Observatory said in a statement received by AFP in Nicosia. It also said security forces made arrests in the village of Al-Sokhna east of Homs.
More than 50 people have been killed in the past week in Homs, activists have said, accusing the regime of sowing sectarian strife among the city's Christians, Sunni Muslims and Assad's Alawite minority community.
Residents of Homs, Syria's third city, observed a strike on Saturday while the army encircled the city, cutting off its water and electricity. Homs has spearheaded demonstrations against Assad and his regime since protests erupted on March 15. The army had already entered the city in May to stop rallies calling for the fall of the regime, and launched a new operation earlier this week. The crackdown on dissent prompted condemnations on Friday from France and Britain as UN officials spoke of the possibility of crimes against humanity being committed in Syria.
In Damascus, security forces arrested hundreds of people in the neighbourhoods of Qabun and Rukneddin, which has a mostly Kurdish population, Rihawi told AFP in Nicosia by phone.
"Army units set up roadblocks on routes into Qabun, controlling all entry and exit," he said, adding that they had lists of wanted people.