At least 19 dead as Syria uses gunboats to bombard city

Syrian gunboats pounded the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia with heavy machine gun fire yesterday, killing at least 19 people in the latest wave of the regime's crackdown on anti-government protests.

The attacks were part of an aggressive new military offensive that began alongside the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at the start of August. Several hundred people were killed in the first week alone, according to human rights groups and activists, and the campaign brought fresh international outrage.

As the gunships blasted poor waterfront districts, ground troops backed by tanks and security agents stormed several neighbourhoods.

"We are being targeted from the ground and the sea," said a resident of the al-Ramel district, which is also home to a Palestinian refugee camp.

"The shooting is intense. Many homes have been destroyed and the shabiha (pro-regime thugs] have broken into shops."

The resident said at least three gunboats were taking part in the offensive, and that many people have been killed and wounded.

"We cannot go out. They are raiding and breaking into people's homes," he said, citing reports that about 100 people have been arrested.

Human rights and activist groups said gunboats are taking part in the offensive, firing heavy machine guns. A large number of people were wounded as a result of the indiscriminate firing on houses, they said.

"They are trying to take control of the city as they did in other places," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory.

The security forces appear to be intent on crushing dissent in the al-Ramel district, which has seen large protests against president Bashar al-Assad since the uprising began in mid-March.

On Friday, as many as 10,000 people took to the streets, calling for Mr Assad to go. On Saturday, at least 20 tanks and armoured personnel carriers rolled into al-Ramel amid intense gunfire that saw many residents flee the area. Two people were killed.

Activist network the Local Co-ordination Committees put the number of dead yesterday at 19.

The intense operation in Latakia, a key port city once known as a summer tourist attraction, follows brutal government crackdowns on a number of other cities and towns over the past few weeks.

The city has a potentially explosive sectarian mix. Sunnis, a majority in Syria, live in Latakia's urban core, while Mr Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, populates villages on the outskirts, along with small numbers of Christians, ethnic Turks and other groups.

The crackdown, which has targeted predominantly Sunni areas of the city of more than 600,000 people, raised concerns of sectarian bloodshed in a country that has already seen an alarming rise in such tensions since the start of the uprising.

The protests calling for the Assad regime's downfall have grown dramatically over the past five months, driven in part by anger over the government's bloody crackdown in which rights groups say at least 1,700 civilians have been killed.

The government has justified its crackdown by saying it is dealing with terrorist gangs and criminals fomenting unrest.

State-run news agency SANA said troops were pursuing "gunmen using machine guns, hand grenades and bombs who have been terrorising residents in al-Ramel district". The agency denied reports the area was being targeted from the sea.