UN Council condemns Syria violence

14 members of the UN Security Council condemned “widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities.”

It was agreeed after three days of negotiations and falls short of a full resolution.

The statement contains no provision for sanctions or other punitive measures against Syria, nor does it call for a referral of Syrian leaders to the International Criminal Court, as some human rights groups have demanded.

The only future action provided for is a request to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report back to the council within seven days on the situation in Syria. It does not specify what follow-up there might be to his report.

Syria’s neighbour Lebanon disasociated itself from the statement agreed by the other members of the council, but it did not block the statement allowing it to pass.

Commenting on the statement Britain’s Foreign Minister William Hague welcomed the move saying, “I call on President Assad’s regime to end its violence and to allow genuine political reform. Until it does, the regime will be discredited amongst its own people and facing increased pressure internationally.”

Hama

The statement came as footage emerged appearing to show tanks opening fire on the al-Bahra roundabout, snipers on rooftops and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of protesters demonstrating in squares across the country.

What does seem to be clear is that citizens are pouring out of Hama in a bid to flee the violence.

Syrian tanks have occupied Orontes Square in central Hama and others have apparently concentrated shelling on al-Hader district, large parts of which were razed during a 1982 military assault on Hama that killed over 30 000 people, when security forces crushed an anti-government uprising.

The square has been the venue of some of the largest demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad‘s rule during a five-month street uprising for political freedoms.

Human rights campaigners said the assaults by President Assad’s forces across Syria on Monday and Tuesday had killed at least 27 civilians, including 13 in Hama, where troops and tanks began an operation to regain control on Sunday.

That brought the total to about 137 dead throughout Syria in the past three days, 93 of them in Hama, according to witnesses, residents and rights campaigners.

About 1,700 civilians have been killed since the largely peaceful protests against President Assad’s regime began, according to tallies by activists.

Read more: Syria's defiant women vow to keep up the fight

Tuesday night’s shelling in Hama followed the bombarding of residential areas across the city on Monday night. The renewed assault was concentrated on the eastern Rubaii and al-Hamidiya neighbourhoods, the Aleppo road in the north and the eastern Baath district, two residents said.

A crowd which tried to rally in the central Alamein neighbourhood after prayers marking the end of the daytime fast came under rifle fire by regime forces.

There were no immediate reports of casualties. Rights campaigners earlier said five civilians were killed on Tuesday as tanks thrust further into the central Syrian city of 700,000.

Other unverified reports suggest that Army planes were seen over the city of Homs, which was also shelled extensivley by tanks in several bloody weeks earlier this year.