Syrian Unrest

Syrian security forces have cracked down on anti-government protests across the country, killing 100 people in the city of Hama alone, reports say.

Witnesses said tanks moved into Hama at dawn, shelling civilians. Other towns also erupted in violence in one of the bloodiest days since protests began.

The government said troops had been sent in to Hama to remove barricades erected by the protesters. 

US officials accused the government of waging "full-on warfare" on its people.

The assault was a last act of utter desperation by the Syrian government, said JJ Harder, a US embassy spokesman in the capital, Damascus.

By early evening, activists in Hama told the BBC that the city was quiet, and that the tanks had pulled out to the city's perimeters after failing to gain control of the centre.

With this latest military operation, the authorities are sending a clear message that they will not tolerate large-scale unrest ahead of the month of Ramadan, when protests are expected to grow, says the BBC's Lina Sinjab in Damascus.

But the BBC correspondent says the people of Hama remain defiant, with some still out in streets shouting: "We will not be killed again," a reference to a massacre in 1982 when tens of thousands were killed.

Elsewhere in Syria, activists said about 30 people had been killed on Sunday amid widespread clashes.

  From the BBC