REUTERS | Khaled Yacoub Oweis | August 7, 2011
At least 57 Syrian civilians were killed in armoured military assaults by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces on Sunday to crush a five-month uprising against his rule, a grassroots activists’ organisation said.
Among them were 38 in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor and 13 in the Houla Plain, 30 km (19 miles) north of the city of Homs, which were stormed by tanks and armoured vehicles early on Sunday, the Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union said.
“These are preliminary figures. The numbers of casualties are escalating by the hour,” activist Suhair al-Atassi, a SRCU member, told Reuters by phone from Damascus.
