Army pulls back in Deraa, advances elsewhere

Syria said on Thursday army units have begun to leave Deraa, the heart of an uprising against President Bashar Al Assad, but residents described a city still under siege.

Soldiers also raided homes across the country as President Bashar Al Assad grappled with the most serious challenge of his 11-year authoritarian rule.

Two witnesses who were heading out of the city told Reuters that around 30 tanks on armoured carriers had left the city heading north. They said Syrian army units backed with armour remained deployed at several entrances to the city.

Deraa residents who live in Deraa's Mahatta area said at least six tanks were deployed near government installations and public squares and snipers were poised atop building near Tishrin Square.

They also said security forces had allowed people to move freely until 2 p.m. (1100 GMT) when a curfew was imposed.

"There are security barriers every 100 metres. The security forces have not left yet. They are still spread everywhere in the Balad," said one resident who called himself Abu Jasem.

Pictures of the 45-year-old president have reappeared on business and shop windows, resident said. Infuriated by the crackdown, enraged protesters in Deraa had hauled down a statue of Assad's father, Hafez, on March 24.

Rights groups say at least 560 civilians have been killed since the protests erupted in Deraa on March 18, before spreading to other centres. Officials, who blame armed groups for the violence, give a much lower death toll and say half those killed have been security forces.

ARRESTS, SIEGES

Elsewhere, residents said soldiers had made arrests in the Damascus suburb of Saqba and tightened sieges on two defiant urban centres before the Muslim day of prayer on Friday.

The noon prayer is the only time Syrians are permitted to gather legally, and hence the day of the biggest demonstrations and often bloodiest confrontations.

A female resident, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters that hundreds of soldiers in combat gear had broken into houses and made arrests overnight in Saqba, where thousands had demanded Assad's overthrow last week.

"They cut off communications before they came in. There is no resistance. The demonstrations in Saqba have been peaceful. Scores of people have been arrested," she said.

Wissam Tarif, executive director of the Insan human rights group, said at least 260 people had been detained in Saqba. He earlier told Reuters more than 800 people had been rounded up in Deraa since the army moved in.

In a sign that Assad was further widening the use of the military to crush demonstrations, tanks and armoured vehicles deployed around the town of Rastan, and army units set up checkpoints in Sunni districts in Banias.

Armed troops also deployed in the Damascus suburb of Erbin and in the town of Tel, north of the capital, where security forces arrested at least 80 men, women and children, the human rights organisation Sawasiah said.

A student activist said security forces dispersed a demonstration at the University of Aleppo on Thursday.

Before the army division led by Assad's brother Maher stormed Deraa, Assad had relied mainly on other security forces and secret police to confront the demonstrations.

"Assad's decision to use the army is pretty much the utmost escalation of force he can muster and a clear signal that he has no interest in any reconciliation," said an Arab government official monitoring the situation in Syria.

MORE SANCTIONS?

Activists say Assad's gestures towards reforms -- most notably lifting a decades-old emergency law -- rang hollow as security forces intensified attacks against protesters demanding the same kind of change seen in Tunisia and Egypt, where autocratic rulers were ousted by popular uprisings.

Washington, which had been trying to improve its ties with Assad in recent years, has gradually intensified its condemnation of the violence in Syria, most recently calling the army's assault in Deraa "barbaric"

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said on Thursday that Washington and Rome had discussed sanctions against the Syrian government for its suppression of unrest, including suspending cooperation talks with the European Union.

Last week Washington sanctioned leading Syrian figures and the EU agreed in principle to impose an arms embargo.

Assad belongs to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam in Sunni-majority Syria. His father Hafez ruled Syria for 30 years, when Bashar took over after his death

The elder Assad extended Alawite control of the army, which is now led by mostly Alawite officers and effectively controlled by Maher al-Assad, military experts say.

Syria is at the fulcrum of several Middle Eastern conflicts. The ruling hierarchy has an anti-Israel alliance with Iran, but has kept the Golan Heights frontier with the Jewish state quiet since a ceasefire brokered by the United States in 1974. 

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