Syrian forces kill 19 more

AMMAN: Syrian forces killed at least 19 people in raids near the Lebanon border and in the country's Sunni tribal heartland, activists said, pursuing a military campaign to crush street protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

Activists and rights campaigners said 11 civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed on Thursday when troops and tanks swept into Qusair, 135 km (85 miles) north of Damascus, after overnight protests calling for Assad's removal.

In nearby Homs, activists said on Friday that five people, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed in an overnight raid on the Byada residential district after protests in the city.

Nightly Ramadan prayers, or 'tarawih', which follow the breaking of the fast, have given more Syrians a focus for daily protest marches against 41 years of Assad family rule over the country of 20 million, activists said.

Syrian authorities have expelled most independent journalists since the five-month-old uprising began, making it difficult to verify reports from both sides.

In the east, troops and Military Intelligence personnel, backed by armoured vehicles, stepped up their assault on Deir al-Zor, capital of an oil-producing province bordering Iraq.

Four civilians were killed in house-to-house raids in Deir al-Zor on Thursday and several shops belonging to families of prominent dissidents in the city were burned down, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

One person was killed in the coastal city of Latakia.

About 14 tanks and armoured vehicles swept into Saraqeb, a town on Syria's main north-south highway that has seen daily demonstrations, and security forces arrested 100 people, residents said by telephone.