Four killed in Syrian crackdown

Syrian forces attacked a central town and stormed parts of an eastern city, killing at least four people in fresh fighting as President Bashar Assad's government struggled to crush a five-month-old uprising, activists said.

The attacks on the central town of Houleh in the Homs province and Deir el-Zour in the east early today came a day after the country's foreign minister looked to allay protests demanding reforms by announcing that free parliamentary elections would be held by the end of the year.

The gesture is unlikely soothe the tensions in a battle in which the government's crackdown has left over 1,600 dead and drawn strong international sanctions and condemnation against Assad's regime.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least four people were killed when troops stormed Houleh, but the Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist group tracking the uprising, said seven people were killed in a bombing raid on the town. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the discrepancy.

Both regions have witnessed intense protests against Assad since the uprising began in mid-March. Syrian forces on Saturday tightened their siege on the city of Hama, a main centre for the uprising. Damascus describes the protesters as criminals

An activist in the Deir el-Zour told The Associated Press the military launched a pre-dawn raid on the city, attacking it from four sides and so far taking control of eight neighbourhoods. He said the raid began at 4am, and the Local Co-ordination Committees confirmed that parts of the city were under the control of the military.

"Human conditions in the city are very bad since it has been under siege for nine days," the activist said on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals. "There is lack of medicine, baby formula, food stuff and gasoline. The city is totally paralysed."

The Deir el-Zour activist said he has no exact numbers of casualties, adding that many of the wounded cannot be taken to hospitals and are being treated in homes and mosques turned into clinics.

The government's crackdown has drawn broad international condemnation, with criticism focused particularly on the bloody siege of Hama which was launched last Sunday after residents took over the city of 800,000 and barricaded it against regime forces.

Turkey, which borders Syria, said it would send its foreign minister to Damascus on Tuesday to deliver a strong message against the crackdown on the protesters. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's patience was running thin and that Turkey could not remain a bystander to the violence.

In addition, Gulf Arab countries broke their silence on the bloodshed, calling on Saturday for an immediate end to the violence and for the implementation of "serious" reforms in Syria. In a statement posted on its website, the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council expressed deep concern and regret for "the escalating violence in Syria and use of excess force."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Saturday urged Assad, in a phone conversation, to immediately stop the use of military force against civilians.

Deir el-Zour is the capital of an oil-rich province by the same name, but the region is among the country's poorest and was hit by drought in the past years. It is inhabited by Arab tribes that extend into Iraq, and Syrian authorities have said they thwarted attempts by locals to smuggle arms from Iraq into Syria.

Many of the tribes in the Deir el-Zour region were armed by Assad's regime in the past to fight members of the Syria's Kurdish minorities.

AP