Welcome to Middle East Live. There is very disturbing news coming out of Syria today with at least 24 civilians reportedly killed in Hama.
Syria
• Syrian tanks stormed the city of Hama at dawn, residents said, after besieging it for nearly a month to crush some of the biggest demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. A doctor, who did not want to be further identified for fear of arrest, told Reuters that the city's Badr, al-Horani and Hikmeh hospitals had received 19, three and two dead bodies respectively.
There were scores of wounded people and a shortage of blood for transfusions, he said by telephone from the city, which has a population of around 700,000. The doctor said:
Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machineguns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants.
Another resident said:
The casualties are higher. There are bodies uncollected in the streets.
Tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute in and around northern Hama, residents said, and electricity and water supplies to the main neighbourhoods had been cut - a tactic used regularly by the military when storming towns to crush protests.
• Security forces have also killed three civilians while storming houses in southern Syria, rights campaigners said. The three died in the town of al-Hirak, 35 km (20 miles) northeast of the city of Deraa, local activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that dozens of people, including three women, had been arrested. The Observatory said troops also arrested more than 100 people in the Damascus suburb of Madamiyah. A Western diplomat said he saw several tanks enter the suburb.
Libya
• The information minister of Libya's rebel movement says its forces have overrun the base of a rival faction after five hours of fighting, following Thursday's killing of chief rebel commander Abdel-Fattah Younis. Mahmoud Shamam says the clashes broke out around 3am Sunday and left four rebels dead and six wounded. The main rebel force was now in control of the al-Nidaa Brigade's base on the western outskirts of Benghazi, the de facto capital of Libya's rebel-held east. A senior Libyan opposition figure has admitted that rebel soldiers were responsible for the murder of their most senior army commander. The transitional government's oil minister said that Younis had been shot dead by Islamist-linked militia within the anti-Gaddafi forces, provoking fears of future unrest and instability among those fighting the old regimein yet unexplained circumstances.
• Nato warplanes bombed three Libyan state TV satellite transmitters in Tripoli overnight, targeting a key propaganda tool. The Nato strikes echoed across the capital before dawn. There was no comment from Libyan officials on what had been hit. Nato said the airstrikes aimed to degrade Gaddafi's "use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them." In a statement on its website, it said:
Striking specifically these critical satellite dishes will reduce the regime's ability to oppress civilians while (preserving) television broadcast infrastructure that will be needed after the conflict.
It called Gaddafi's TV broadcasts inflammatory and said they were intended to mobilize his supporters.
There are many different accounts of the number of people killed in Hama today floating about. The Syrian days of rage Facebook page quotes eyewitness saying "at least 62 dead and hundreds injured". Others are quoting fatalities in the 40s but the picture remains unclear.
Lots of video is coming out of Hama purporting to be of today's crackdown by Syrian security forces. Here's a selection:
This shows tanks on the streets and a lorry on fire, with the sound of gunfire in the background:
This shows thick clouds of black smoke rising over the city:
This also shows tanks and has Arabic commentary with English subtitles:
Another video (WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC) purports to show people killed in today's crackdown in Hama.
At least 45 people have been killed in Hama, accoring to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Rami Abdel Rahman, from the Observatory, told AFP.
"The army and security forces entered Hama this morning and opened fire on civilians, killing 45 and wounding several more.
He said elsewhere, "six people were killed and 50 wounded by security forces in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor and three were killed and dozens wounded at Harak in the southern Deraa region".
Photograph: AlJazeera English
The notorious Syrian state TV director, Reem Haddad, who has provoked comparisions with Iraq's Comical Ali for insisting on innocent explanations for the brutal government response to protests, told al-Jazeera security forces had entered Hama because people were unable to go about their daily life. She said:
Hama is no longer a part of Hama. It's as if it belongs to another planet. It's not acceptable.
A couple of interesting tweets on the crackdown in Syria from Borzou Daragahi, a Middle East correspondent for the Los Angeles Times:
Activist in Hama reached by phone emphasizes that tanks have yet to penetrate the heart of the city, still on the outskirts. #Syria #15march
Al-Arabiya reporting defections of five tanks in Hama, shows amateur video of soldiers kissing activists #syria #15march
Hospitals in Hama, in Syria, are full and appealing for blood urgently needed for transfusions.
Ahmed, a resident of the city, told the Associated Press he saw up to 12 people shot dead in the streets in a district known as the Baath neighborhood. Most had been shot in the chest and head, he said.
It's a massacre, they want to break Hama before the month of Ramadan.
The holy month of Ramadan where Muslims fast from dawn till dusk is due to start tomorrow and there were high hopes it would galvanise the opposition movement in Syria. The reason it is seen as a critical time for the opposition movement is that many more people attend mosques than usual during Ramadan and mosques have been an important gathering place for demonstrators against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
I just spoke to Syrian activst Talal Al-Mayhani, who is on the committee for external relations for the Damascus opposition conference. He said today's crackdown looks like an attempt to provoke the opposition into violence.
It seems that from the beginning of the protests since March, there is a sort of strategy followed by the regime in order to draw people to be involved in counter-violence. The regime know that if this happens he will be the winner because he is stronger and at the same time it may give the crackdown sort of legitimacy.
Talal also dismissed the idea that the opposition was already involved in violence or that people in Hama needed saving (as Reema Haddad claimed, see 10.05am).
I visited Syria last month. From my point of view, I met a lot of people around at least the big cities and I didn't find any evidence for these type of gunmen or gangs.
For more than four or five weeks there were no security forces in Hama. There was no army in Hama. [And] there was not one casualty or one victim. Just today, early morning when the army started entering Hama we started to hear how the horrible news from there and so far its about 49 victims in Hama....It poses a question as about...how such interference will basically save the lives of people there.
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Photograph: Reuters
The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, has condemned today's crackdown in Syria, which he says appears to be an attempt to discourage protest during Ramadan:
I am appalled by the reports that the Syrian security forces have stormed Hama with tanks and other heavy weapons this morning killing dozens of people. Such action against civilians who have been protesting peacefully in large numbers in the city for a number of weeks has no justification. The attack appears to be part of a coordinated effort across a number of towns in Syria to deter the Syrian people from protesting in advance of Ramadan. The attacks are all the more shocking on the eve of the Muslim holy month. President Bashar is mistaken if he believes that oppression and military force will end the crisis in his country. He should stop this assault on his own people now.
This is the version of events in Hama being reported by the Syrian state news agency, Sana:
Two law enforcement members were martyred by armed groups in Hama who set police stations on fire, vandalised public and private properties, set roadblocks and barricades and burned tires at the entrance of the city and in its streets.
Army units are removing the barricades and roadblocks set by the armed groups at the entrance of the city.
Sana was informed by residents in the city that armed groups of scores of gunmen are stationed on the rooftops of the main buildings in the streets of the city, carrying up-to-date machine guns and RPGs and shooting intensively to terrorize citizens.
A video posted on YouTube purports to show a demonstration being held in Idlib, in north-west Syria, to show solidarity with the people of Hama and Deir Ezzor.
Videos have also been posted (WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC) of two people said to be killed in Deir Ezzor - Majid Hazza'a and Maher Atiyeh.
Wissam Tarif, from the human rights group Insan, tweets that there is heavy shooting in Homs, in Syria.
Videos have been purported on YouTube, purported to be fimed in the Damascus suburb of Madimyah, where rights groups say up to 150 people have been arrested, in which gunfire can be heard and military vehicles, including what looks like an armoured car/tank, can be seen.
This map gives an indication of some of the areas being targeted by Syrian security forces today.
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AFP (via Ahram Online) is reporting 121 killed in Syria today, including 95 in Hama, according to a human rights activist:
At least 95 people were killed on Sunday when the military launched an attack on the flashpoint protest city of Hama in central Syria, a human rights activist said.
Ammar Qorabi, who heads the National Organisation for Human Rights, reported the toll and also said army attacks across the country on Sunday killed at least 121 people and wounded dozens more.
There is wide variation in the number of deaths being reported. The local co-ordinating committees (LCC) which organise and report protests in Syria have just put the death toll at more than 70 with 49 killed in Hama. They say 13 have been killed in Deir Ezzor and 7 Al-Herak, in Deraa province, and 6 in Soran, north of Hama. The LCC names a 13-year-old Mohamad Hatem as one of those killed in Hama. There is video purporting to be of him although it is of very poor quality.
The Syrian regime is using reports of army defections to lure people into a false sense of security in Hama, al-Jazeera reports. It says there are reports that people have been shot after approaching soldiers said to have defected.
The focus has been on Syria so far today for obvious reasons but here's an update on Libya, where there have also been significant developments with clashes outside Benghazi. Some reports suggest that the clashes have been between different factions of the rebel army, just days after the mysterious killing of chief rebel commander Abdel-Fattah Younis, but the oppostion is insisting the fighting is with Gaddafi forces. From Reuters:
Rebel spokesman Mahmoud Shammam told reporters in the opposition capital of Benghazi that the clashes broke out when rebel forces attacked a militia that had helped some 300 Gaddafi loyalists break out of jail on Friday.Rebel forces surrounded the barracks in which the militia, which calls itself the Nida Brigade, had been holed up. At least six rebels were killed in the clashes, he said, which involved rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
"At 8 am, the barracks was brought under control. Thirty men surrendered and we took their weapons," Shammam said.
"We consider them members of the fifth column," he added, reflecting growing fears among the opposition that Gaddafi loyalists have infiltrated their ranks.
The 300 Gaddafi soldiers and loyalists who broke out of jail were apparently still at large.
This video is said to be of the fighting:
Meanwhile, the battle continues to rage in the western Nafusa mountains. Al-Jazeera's James Bays said a battle has been raging for hours on the fourth day of an offensive by oppostion forces. He said the rebels have taken al-Jawsh, which they tried to take a few days ago before being repelled, but Gaddafi forces that have left al-Jawsh are now bombarding the city.
Here's a summary of today's key developments so far:
• Dozens of people have been killed in a crackdown by Syrian security forces on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Most of those killed were in Hama where army tanks moved in at dawn but deaths have also been reported in Deir Ezzor, in Al-Herak, in Deraa province, and in Soran, north of Hama. There are various reports of the number of casualties but some reports put the number killled across Syria at more than 100.
A 13-year-old boy is said to be among those killed in Hama.
• There has also been gunfire reported in Homs in Syria and more than 100 people are said to have been arrested in the Damascus suburb of Madamiyah.
• Clashes have been taking place on the outskirts of Benghazi, just days after the killing of Libyan chief rebel commander Abdel-Fattah Younis. Some reports claim that the fighting is between different factions of the rebel army but the opposition claims the fighting is with Gaddafi forces.
• Libyan opposition fighters in the western Nafusa mountains have taken al-Jawsh but are being bombarded by Gaddafi forces who left the city.
This video is said to show footage of soldiers defecting in Hama today. At one point a civilian kisses a man on the cheek and hugs him.
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JJ Harder, the press attache at the US embassy in the Syrian capital, has told the BBC World Service that the Syrian government's actions today amount to "full-on warfare" and an act of "desparation". He said:
I think we can safely say [it's] full-on wafare by the Syrian government on its own people. Specificallyin Hama but also this weekend you've seen military deployment within the city of Deir Ezzor ...This full-on warfare in which the government is engagin today, I think, amounts to nothing less than a last acto of utter desperation. They're killling their own people, they're sending they're tanks into their own cities. It's ridiculous.
There is one big armed gang in Syria and it's named the Syrian government. That is the armed gang that's pillaging its own cities, that's the armed gang that is strking terror into the hearts of alot of these people out there who just want to peacefully protest.
Wissam Tarif from the human rights group Insan was just on al-Jazeera. He said that he thought the attacks by the Syrian security services today were designed to deter people from coming out in force to protest during Ramadan. Tarif said the regime's big fear is that people in the suburbs of Damascus could try to occupy a square (in the same way people did in Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain) and that is one of the government's "big red lines".
Sheikh Nawaf al-Bashir, the leader of the main Baggara tribe in the rebellious province of Deir Ezzor has been arrested by Syrian forces, opposition sources have told Reuters.
Bashir was a key supporter of the so-called Damascus Declaration which opposition leaders issued in 2005 to press for reform. He says he has been interrogated by the security services more than 75 times.
Iyad El-Baghdadi, on Twitter, says that another member of the Baqqara tribe, speaking on al-Jazeera Arabic, warned the government of an armed response if Bashir is not released by 5pm (3pm BST - i.e. it has just passed).
Wow. AJA guest just gave a strongly worded warning to Assad's regime re Shk Nawaf: Release him by 5 PM or our tribe is no longer peaceful.The guest on AJA was another tribal leader from the same tribe as Shk Nawaf al-Bashir. Warned of armed options if not released by 5 PM.
Hours before the Baggara tribe leader, Sheikh Nawaf al-Bashir, was arrested (see 3.01pm), he told Reuters he was striving to stop armed resistance to a military assault by the Syrian army on the provincial capital of Deir Ezzor and to convince inhabitants to stick to peaceful methods, despite killings by security forces, the news agency reports.
Secret police agents arrested Bashir - who commands the loyalty of an estimated 1.2 million Baggara- in Ein Qirsh district of Damascus on Saturday afternoon, they said.
At least 42 people were injured when Syrian forces threw nail bombs at a demonstration in the Damascus suburb of Harasta, Reuters reports. Two residents told the news agency that the army's ultra loyalist Fourth Division had deployed in the area to subdue pro-democracy protests.
This video, purportedly filmed in Harasta today, shows people lying on the ground injured and being carried away.
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The opposition group the Syrian Revolution Co-ordinators Union (here's an interview with the group's leader from earlier this month) is calling for a general strike on Monday and for more protests tonight in support of Hama, says al-Jazeera's Rula Amin.
The LCC, which organises and reports protests in Syria, has joined the Syrian Revolution Co-ordinators Union (see 4.03pm) in calling for a general strike and urging more protests. It said:
The blood of your brothers and sisters in Hama and Homs and Daraa and Idlib and Damascus and Deir Ezzor is crying out for you to rise up to save your homeland from the rule of murderers ...If you do not free yourselves and save your country now, you will be ruled like slaves for years and decades, and you will pay a very high price, higher than what you might have to pay today to participate in the glorious national revolution.
The local coordination committee invite the Syrian people to hold a general strike all over Syria starting today, in support of our brothers at all the Syrian cities, and as a means of protesting against the extreme voilence and killing by the murderous regime all over bleeding Syria.
The LCC also echoed the opinion of other activists who said the Syrian government's actions today were prompted by fear of mass protests during Ramadan:
Protesters had promised Syrian authorities to intensify protests in Ramadan and make it the regime's last month. Today Syrian authorities responded to this promise with the only answer they have known since the beginning of the revolution, but in a more intense way. The regime actions today reflect a desperate will of suppressing the peaceful movement, or reflects a great fear and an internal confusion, especially after the latest splits within the army, which now are more than isolated individual cases ...
What is going on now in Syria is a regime clinging to its power in madness, and not a planned course of action. This is evident by the random killings targeting children, infants and arrests of whole families.
Reuters has an update on rebel gains in Libya:
Rebel tanks pounded Gaddafi troops in Tiji, some 200 km (125 miles) southwest of Tripoli, inching one km closer to the last government stronghold in the Western Mountains.
"We are going to take Tiji, I know it. And that will clear the way for us to head to Tripoli eventually," said fighter Naji Shayboukh, who was holding a home-made rocket-launcher.
About 14 rebels were killed and more than 20 wounded, hospital sources said, in a second day of heavy fighting on the front near Zlitan, some 160 km (100 miles) east of Tripoli and the largest town between rebel-held Misrata and the capital.In the past 48 hours, rebels have advanced about 3 km towards Zlitan but have yet to solidify their gains. Television footage obtained by Reuters showed what appeared to be buildings in in Zlitan's eastern suburb of Zdou. The footage also showed heavy fighting, with rebels using machine guns against Gaddafi's troops.
"We have advanced well and God willing we will be in Zlitan soon," said Ibrahim Buwathi, 24, who had a shrapnel wound in his shoulder and was awaiting treatment at the hospital.
About 20 explosions rocked the nearby rebel-held city of Misrata overnight in an apparent attack by Gaddafi loyalists.Libyan rebels also said they had moved closer to Brega, and were now positioned 5 to 7 km from the east of the oil town.
Al-Jazeera's James Bays, who has been to the frontline, says Tiji is surrounded.
This blog is ending for the day now. Here's a summary of events on a day that may well have seen the most deaths in Syria since the protests against Bashar al-Assad began in March:
• Dozens of people have been killed in a crackdown by Syrian security forces on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Most of those killed were in Hama where army tanks moved in at dawn but deaths have also been reported in Deir Ezzor, in Al-Herak, in Deraa province, and in Soran, north of Hama. There are various reports of the number of casualties but many put the number of dead more than 100. A 13-year-old boy is said to be among those killed in Hama.
• Syrian activists said the regime appeared to be attempting to stop a feared intensification of protests during Ramadan or provoke demonstrators into a violent conflict in which the government's security forces would crush them. The government claimed armed groups were terrorising Hama's civilians.
• There was also gunfire reported in Homs in Syria and more than 100 people are said to have been arrested in the Damascus suburb of Madamiyah.
• Clashes have been taking place on the outskirts of Benghazi, just days after the killing of Libyan chief rebel commander Abdel-Fattah Younis. There were differing reports over who was involved in the clashes with some reports suggesting that the fighting was between different factions of the rebel army but the opposition insists the fighting is with Gaddafi forces who helped some 300 Gaddafi loyalists break out of jail near Benghazi on Friday.
• Libyan opposition fighters have made gains in the western Nafusa mountains. They have taken taken al-Jawsh but are being bombarded by Gaddafi forces who left the city. They have also surrounded Tiji.