Washington makes it personal with moves against Syrian leader

Washington imposed sanctions on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for human rights abuses last night in a dramatic escalation of pressure on Syria to cease its brutal crackdown on protesters.

Assad had been partly rehabilitated in the West over the past three years but western powers have condemned his use of force to quell protests against his 11 years in power.

Targeting Assad personally with sanctions, which the United States and European Union have so far avoided, is a significant strike against Damascus and raises questions about whether the West may ultimately seek Assad's removal from power.

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Human rights groups say at least 700 civilians have been killed in two months of clashes between government forces and protesters seeking an end of Assad's rule.

The move, announced by the US Treasury Department, freezes any assets of the Syrian officials that are in the US or otherwise fall within US jurisdiction and it generally bars US individuals and companies from dealing with them.

In addition to Assad, it said the sanctions would target vice-president Farouq al-Shara, prime minister Adel Safar, interior minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar, defence minister Ali Habib as well as Abdul Fatah Qudsiya, the head of Syrian military intelligence, and Mohammed Dib Zaitoun, director of the political security directorate.

Switzerland said yesterday it would impose travel bans on 13 top Syrian officials - not including Assad himself - and freeze any of their assets held in Swiss banks, matching a decision by the European Union last week.

Syrian authorities blame most of the violence on armed groups backed by Islamists and outside powers, saying they have also killed more than 120 soldiers and police.

In Syria, tanks shelled a border town for the fourth day yesterday in the latest targeted military campaign to crush demonstrations.

Troops went into Tel Kelakh on Saturday, a day after a demonstration there demanded "the overthrow of the regime" - the slogan of revolutions that have toppled Arab leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and challenged others across the Middle East.

"We're still without water, electricity or communications," a resident of Tel Kelakh said, speaking by satellite phone.

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He said the army was storming houses and making arrests, but withdrawing from neighbourhoods after the raids. In a sign that the army was coming under fire in the town, he said some families "are resisting, preferring death to humiliation".

A witness on the Lebanese side of the border said heavy gunfire could be heard from Tel Kelakh.

Assad told a delegation from the Damascus district of Midan that security forces had made mistakes in their handling of the protests, Syria's al Watan newspaper reported yesterday.One delegate said Assad had told them that 4,000 police would receive training "to prevent these excesses" being repeated, it said.

Prominent human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouna said the army and security forces have killed at least 27 civilians since the army moved into Tel Kelakh.