Syrian forces spread through southern towns on Thursday and tightened their grip on two other cities, broadening a military crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government. While Assad has promised reforms in the hope of dampening dissent, tanks advanced in the southern towns of Dael, Tafas, Jassem and al-Harra before Friday - the Muslim day of prayer which has become a major day of Arab protest.
Friday prayers offer the only chance for Syrians to assemble in large numbers, making it easier to hold demonstrations. Tanks are deployed in areas on the Syrian coast, the central region of Homs, outside the city of Hama to the north and now across the southern Hauran Plain, regions which cover large swathes of the country of 20 million people.
The official SANA news agency said army units were chasing "armed terrorist groups", backed by Islamists and foreign agitators, whom authorities have blamed for the violence. The government says about 100 soldiers and police have been killed, including two on Wednesday in the cities of Homs and Deraa. The uprising against Assad's autocratic rule erupted on March 18 in the strategic Hauran region, bordering the Israeli- occupied Golan Heights to the west and Jordan to the south. A prominent lawyer in Hauran said hundreds of people had been arrested in the area since Wednesday, when 13 people were killed in what a rights activist said was tank shelling of houses in Harra, about 60 km (40 miles) north-west of Deraa city.
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