Syrian tanks shell towns, 19 killed

Syrian tanks shelled residential districts in two towns on Wednesday and at least 19 people were killed across the country, rights campaigners said, as President Bashar al-Assad's forces fought to crush a seven-week uprising. Assad, fighting the most serious challenge to his 11-year-rule, has sent troops and tanks into several cities in the last two weeks to try to bring to an end protests inspired by Arab revolts which toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.
Protesters, who first called for reforms and greater freedoms, have hardened their demands with many chanting for the overthrow of the president who inherited the authoritarian powers of his father Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000. Wednesday was one of the bloodiest days apart from the main Friday protest days, when thousands use the platform of weekly Muslim prayers to demonstrate. Most of the violence occurred in the southern Deraa province, where unrest erupted on March 18.
Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, said 13 people were killed in the town of Harra, about 60 km (40 miles) north-west of Deraa city. Most were killed when tanks shelled four houses. Two people - a child and a nurse - died in gunfire, he said.
Tanks also shelled a residential district in Homs, Syria's third largest city, and at least five people were killed, a rights campaigner in the city said. A sixth person was killed by a sniper shot to the head as he stood in front of his house. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities, who have banned most international media from Syria, making it difficult to verify accounts of events.
The violence has been denounced in the West, where countries have imposed limited sanctions on Syrian leaders but stopped short of calling for Assad to step down, as they have in the case of Libya's Muammar Qadhafi. Syria withdrew its candidacy on Wednesday for a spot on the top UN human rights body. Its ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja-afari, said Damascus was "reconsidering our priorities" and would try again in 2013.
US Ambassador Susan Rice said Syria's bid was blocked by Asian states with the "good sense" to withhold support for a country "in the process of killing its own people on the streets, arresting thousands and terrorising a population that is seeking to express itself through largely peaceful means".
In Damascus, security forces have arrested opposition leader Mazen Adi, from the People's Democratic Party founded by Syria's top dissident, Riad al-Turk, according to rights activists. Demonstrators have shouted the name of Makhlouf as a symbol of corruption in a country that has faced severe water shortages and unemployment.Makhlouf says he is a businessman whose companies provide jobs for thousands of Syrians. In Banias, protesters held up pictures of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to salute him for his stand against what they perceive as Assad's iron fist policy towards opposition.
Erdogan maintains close trade and diplomatic ties with Assad but has disputed the official Damascus account of the violence. Syrian officials have blamed most of the violence on "armed terrorist groups", backed by Islamists and foreign agitators, and say about 100 soldiers and police have been killed.
Erdogan said more than 1,000 civilians had died in Syria's upheaval. He said he did not want to see a repeat of the 1982 bloodshed in Hama, where Assad's father crushed an Islamist uprising, or the 1988 gassing of Kurds in the Iraqi town of Halabja during the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. In Geneva, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Syria to halt mass arrests and to heed calls for reform. Ban also said that UN humanitarian workers and human rights monitors must be allowed into Deraa as well as other cities.