Syrian tanks pound city as Saudi king condemns violence (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad extended a tank onslaught in Syria’s Sunni Muslim tribal heartland on Monday, residents said, in a crackdown on dissent that prompted an extraordinary warning from Saudi Arabia that he should stop the violence or risk defeat.

King Abdullah broke Arab silence after the bloodiest week of the almost five-month uprising for more political freedoms in Syria, demanding an end to the bloodshed and recalling the Saudi ambassador from Damascus.

Hours later Kuwait and Bahrain recalled their envoys too.

The steps by Gulf Arab states who watched the unrest mutely but nervously for months deepened Assad’s international isolation. Western nations have imposed sanctions on his top officials while countries with close ties to Damascus such as Russia and Turkey have warned Assad he is running out of time.

The Saudi criticism was the sharpest the oil giant has directed against any fellow Arab state since pro-democracy uprisings began to sweep across the Middle East in January, toppling autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt, kindling civil war in Libya and rattling entrenched elites throughout the region.

“What is happening in Syria is not acceptable for Saudi Arabia,” Abdullah said in a written statement read out on Al Arabiya satellite television.

“Syria should think wisely before it’s too late and issue and enact reforms that are not merely promises but actual reforms,” said the Saudi king, an absolute ruler whose country has no elected parliament. “Either it chooses wisdom on its own or it will be pulled down into the depths of turmoil and loss.”

Syrian tanks and troops poured into the eastern Sunni city of Deir al-Zor in the latest stage of a campaign to crush centers of protest against 41 years of repressive rule by the Assad family and domination by his Alawite minority community.

“Armored vehicles are shelling the al-Hawiqa district heavily with their guns. Private hospitals are closed and people are afraid to send the wounded to state facilities because they are infested with secret police,” Mohammad, a Deir al-Zor resident who did not want to give his full name.

He said at least 65 people had been killed since tanks and Armored vehicles barreled into the provincial capital, 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Damascus, Sunday, crumpling makeshift barricades and opening fire.

SHELLING AND GUNFIRE

The assault on Deir al-Zor, in an oil-producing province bordering Iraq, took place a week after tanks stormed Hama, where residents say scores have been killed.

The Arab League called for an end to the bloodshed. But its chief said Monday it would use persuasion rather than “drastic measures” to resolve the conflict, while Kuwait ruled out military action against Assad.

Those cautious responses contrasted with Arab League endorsement of the “no-fly zone” over Libya being enforced by NATO warplanes to support rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi.

France repeated a call for Assad to scrap the military campaign which rights groups say has killed 1,600 civilians.

“The time of impunity is over for the Syrian authorities. This large-scale and bloody repression must stop,” French foreign ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said.

Germany said Assad would lose his legitimacy to rule if he did not drop the crackdown in favor of dialogue with opponents.

Analysts said the fact that Saudi Arabia had joined the growing diplomatic pressure on Syria was unlikely to deter Assad, who has described the clampdown as a national duty.

“There is no evidence that outside statements or pressure in terms of sanctions has any impact on a regime in terms of policies,” Beirut-based Middle East analyst Rami Khouri said.

Relations between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Syria’s Alawite elite have been tense since the assassination in 2005 of Rafik al-Hariri, a Western-backed Lebanese Sunni statesman who also had Saudi nationality.

AUTHORITIES DENY CITY ATTACKED

Syrian authorities denied that any Deir al-Zor assault had taken place. The official state news agency said “not a single tank has entered Deir al-Zor” and reports of tanks in the city were “the work of provocateur satellite channels.”

Syria has barred most journalists, making it hard to confirm events reported by either side in the conflict.

“The Deir al-Zor assault could be the turning point where the repression will backfire and people will start taking up arms against the regime,” one activist said. “Assad cannot repress a whole nation like this, and expect people to watch as thousands get killed or disappear.”

Syrian authorities say they have faced attacks since the protests first erupted in March, blaming armed saboteurs for most of the civilian deaths and accusing them of killing 500 security personnel.

State television broadcast footage Sunday of mutilated bodies floating in the Orontes river in Hama, saying 17 police had been ambushed and killed in the central Syrian city.

Rights groups have reported some cases of gunmen attacking security forces, but that most protests have been peaceful.

In Deir al-Zor, authorities allowed local tribes to arm as a counterweight to a Kurdish population further northeast.

But relations between Assad’s government and the province deteriorated after years of water shortages, corruption and mismanagement of resources wrecked agriculture and led to the internal displacement of up to a million people.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who cultivated close ties with Assad but has sharply criticized the crackdown, said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu would visit Syria Tuesday.

“Our message will be decisively delivered,” he said, drawing a rebuke from an Assad adviser, who described the Turkish statement as unbalanced.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to Davutoglu Sunday, the State Department said, asking him to “reinforce” Washington’s position that Syria must immediately return its military to barracks and release all prisoners of concern.

(Additional reporting by Brian Love in Paris, Brian Rohan in Berlin, Asma al-Sharif in Jeddah, Mahmoud Harby in Kuwait, Ayman Samir in Cairo,; Editing by Dominic Evans and Mark Heinrich)

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