An EU arms embargo and sanctions against 13 Syrian officials deemed responsible for the regime's crackdown on protestors has been officially adopted and will come into force tomorrow.
'The (EU) Council has adopted a regulation and a decision providing for an embargo on exports to Syria of arms and equipment that could be used for internal repression, as well as a visa ban and an assets freeze,' a statement said.
The visa ban and assets freeze targets 13 officials and associates of the Syrian regime identified as responsible for the violent repression against the civilian population in Syria, it added.
The statement said the restrictive measures would be published in the European Union's Official Journal tomorrow, meaning that is when they will take effect.
Meanwhile, government forces including snipers on rooftops have tightened their grip on Homs after President Bashar al-Assad sent in tanks in a crackdown on protests against his rule.
A human rights campaigner in the city said the snipers were deployed in several residential neighbourhoods as the sound of gunfire died down in districts of the city that tanks stormed on Sunday.
The campaigner said: 'There are snipers visible on rooftops of private and public building in al-Adawiya, Bab Sebaa and al-Mreijah neighbourhoods.
'Hundreds have fled from three villages just to the southwest of Homs where tanks had deployed.'
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three civilians were killed yesterday in Homs, a merchant city of 1m people 165km north of Damascus.
Dozens of people have been arrested in Homs and in Banias on the Mediterranean coast, the latest focus of Mr Assad's escalating military swoop on protestors, as well as in other regions, the Observatory said.
A spokesman for the Britain-based group said that up to 500 people have been arrested in Banias since tanks entered on Saturday.
Syria's upheaval began on 18 March when protestors, inspired by revolts across the Arab world, marched in the southern city of Deraa.
President Assad initially responded with vague promises of reform, and last month lifted a 48-year-old state of emergency.
However, when the demonstrations persisted he sent the army to crush public dissent, first in Deraa and then in other cities, making clear he would not risk losing the control his family has held over Syria for the past 41 years.
The Syrian Observatory said 621 civilians have been killed since protests first broke out. Another Syrian human rights group, Sawasiah, puts the civilian death toll at over 800.
