Syrian forces have shelled a residential district in Latakia, the third day of an assault on the port city which had seen mounting protests against President Bashar al-Assad's autocratic rule.
President Assad has broadened a military assault to try to crush a five-month street uprising since the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan on 1 August, when daily protests against 41 years of the Assad family rule began to increase.
Latakia is the latest city to be stormed after Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by the military, the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, capital of a tribal province bordering Iraq's Sunni heartland, and several towns in the northwestern Idlib province, which borders Turkey.
The Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union, a grassroots activists' group, said a 22-year-old man was killed by Assad forces, bringing the total killed in the three-day sea and land assault on Latakia to at least 29 civilians.
Tanks and navy ships shelled southern parts of Latakia yesterday, where around 20,000 people have been rallying daily to demand Mr Assad's removal in different areas of the city after Ramadan evening prayers.
The official state news agency denied that Latakia was shelled from the sea and said two police and four unidentified armed men were killed when ‘order preservation forces pursued armed men who were terrorising residents ... and using machineguns and explosives from rooftops and from behind barricades.’
Rights campaigners said Assad forces also assaulted villages in the Houla Plain north of the city of Homs, carrying out house-to-house raids and arrests, adding to at least 12,000 who have been detained since the uprising and thousands of people already held as political prisoners before then.
Meanwhile, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Turkish president Abdullah Gul, who have urged reforms and an end to the bloodshed in Syria, met in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.
Saudi media said the meeting late on Sunday dealt with ‘regional and international developments,’ without a direct mention of the deadly crackdown on dissent in Syria.
Both fellow Muslim states have urged Assad to bring in swift reforms and end the killings.
Saudi Arabia earlier this month recalled its ambassador from Damascus.
Mr Gul last week urged Assad to implement reforms before it was too late.
King Abdullah and US President Barack Obama agreed in a telephone call on Saturday that 'the Syrian regime's brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately,' the White House said.
