26 dead as Syria ships, tanks blast city: activists

Syrian military vessels joined an assault that killed 26 people on Sunday in the port city of Latakia, activists said. This is the first attack from the sea since an anti-regime revolt erupted in mid-March.

The state-run news agency Sana denied that the navy had attacked Latakia, however, quoting its correspondent there as saying security forces were battling gunmen.

Activists said 4 other people were killed elsewhere in the country a day after world leaders demanded an immediate end to the ruthless crushing of dissent in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 23 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Latakia, while the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS) put the death toll at 26.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory said the vessels opened up with heavy machine guns and the NOHRS confirmed the report, calling the attack "unprecedented."

It provided a list of 26 victims -- including two Palestinian men from the Ramel refugee camp in southern Latakia -- and said that two other people died in Homs, one in Hama and one in Idlib.

The head of medical services in Latakia was quoted as saying that two members of the security forces were killed and 41 others wounded in the city "while chasing armed men."

The reported navy attack on Latakia was the first since anti-regime protests erupted five months ago. In May naval vessels patrolled off the coast of the port of Banias but did not open fire.

On Saturday, the military killed at least two people and wounded 15, also in Ramel, a nerve centre of protests calling for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, according to the Syrian Observatory.

Security forces also surged into the Damascus suburbs of Saqba and Hamriya overnight, cutting communications, firing shots and making arrests, said the Syrian Observatory.

The violence has killed around 2,200 people, including some 400 members of the security forces, according to rights activists. Syrian authorities have blamed the bloodshed on armed gangs and Islamist militants.

The UN Security Council is due to hold a special meeting on Thursday to discuss human rights and the humanitarian emergency in Syria.

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