Syria: Syrian tanks storm city of Hama, more than 120 killed
Syrian security forces shell city at heart of anti-Assad protests, surround major hospital to prevent the wounded from reaching it.
Over 124 people were killed Sunday in a fresh government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters across Syria, activists said.
At least 97 people were killed when the Syrian army stormed the flashpoint central city of Hama, activists told the German Press Agency.
“Hama is used to massacres by the Assad family, but we tell this tyrant the more you kill us the more we are determined to oust you,” the activist, who requested anonymity, told the German Press Agency by phone.
In 1982, a government crackdown caused the deaths of up to 20,000 people in the city, when the town’s Sunni population attempted to revolt against then president Hafez Assad’s minority Alawite sect.
On Sunday, tanks stormed the city at dawn, shelling different neighborhoods. Electricity and water supplies to the main areas were cut before the attack began, said Omar Idlibi, a Syrian activist based in Lebanon.