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Syrian forces have killed at least 21 people in a massive tank-backed raid on the central city of Homs, rights activists say, after the government postponed a visit to the country by the Arab League chief.
Wednesday's security operation came after 2,000 people had taken to the streets of the city a day earlier, activists said.
Most of the killings occurred in old neighborhoods of Homs, situated on the main northern highway 165km from the capital Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based independent Syrian rights group, said.
"Military reinforcements including 20 truckloads of soldiers entered the city," it said, opening "intense gunfire in the market and governorate headquarters".
The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), which organizes the anti-regime protests on the ground, said the death toll continues to increase in Homs, where communications and internet services was cut in many neighborhoods on Wednesday.
At least two people were killed in raids and attacks on Idlib province's Sarmeen, and one other in the northern city of Hama, the LCC said.
"That may be the reason behind the intense raids in Homs," Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh reported from neighboring Jordan. The Syrian government bans international journalists from entering the country.
Activists and residents said heavy machine-gun fire was heard in the Bab Dreib and Bostan Diwan neighborhoods of Homs on Tuesday night after the protesters had set out for the area from Bab Tadmor.
Visit postponed
The security operations came just hours after Syria requested Nabil al-Araby, the Arab League secretary-general, to delay his visit to Damascus, "due to circumstances beyond our control", SANA said late on Tuesday.
League officials said Araby will now visit Syria on Saturday.
El-Araby had been commissioned by the 22-member bloc to travel on Wednesday with a 13-point document outlining proposals to end the government's bloody crackdown on dissent and push Syria to launch reforms.
According to a copy of the document, he was to propose that President Bashar al-Assad hold elections in three years, move towards a pluralistic government and immediately halt the crackdown on anti-government protesters.
The initiative, agreed at an Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo last month, calls for a "clear declaration of principles by Assad specifying commitment to reforms he made in past speeches".
The initiative angered Syria which said it contained "unacceptable and biased language".
The initiative angered Syria which said it contained "unacceptable and biased language".
PHOTO CAPTION
A Syrian military tank takes position in a residential street in the flashpoint city of Homs, 160 kms northeast of Damascus, on August 30.
Al-Jazeera
