Syria Works to Stop Protests

The New York Times reports:

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hundreds of troops backed by at least seven tanks stormed a city on Syria’s Mediterranean coast before dawn on Saturday, cutting electricity and phone lines and besieging neighborhoods in a locale that has emerged as one of the most restive in the seven-week uprising, opposition groups and human rights activists said.

The military’s move against Baniyas, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city that witnessed some of the largest protests in nationwide demonstrations a day earlier, was another signal that the Syrian government was determined to crush by force dissent that has posed a sweeping challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year rule.

The attack mirrored other assaults since Friday on Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, and a restive town on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital. It comes nearly two weeks after the military stormed and effectively occupied Dara’a, a poor town in a drought-stricken region near the border with Jordan where protests have galvanized demonstrations across the country.

Reports were scant, as the military succeeded in blocking communication with most people in Baniyas. Opposition groups, relying on their networks there, said that the military entered the city from three directions under the cover of night and that civilians were trying to block their deployment. There were no immediate reports of fatalities, but opposition groups reported hearing intense gunfire over the phone lines.

Gunboats were also spotted off the coast.

“Land lines and cellphones have been out since dawn, and power outages are spreading,” one activist said on the condition of anonymity, citing reports from Baniyas.

Soon after entering the town, security forces began making arrests, though there were no precise numbers, said Wissam Tarif, the executive director of Insan, a human rights group.

“Basically, we don’t know what’s happening in Baniyas,” he said, adding that he had been talking with someone by phone and “heard firing, bullets, shooting and screaming, and then we lost contact.”