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4 August 2011 Last updated at 18:59 ET
Activists in Syria say injured civilians are being targeted BBC - The Syrian government is responsible for more than 2,000 deaths in
its crackdown against protests, says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
She spoke as an army assault against protest hub Hama was reported to
have killed dozens of people in recent days. Residents of the city say snipers and tanks are firing on civilians and
food and medicine are running low. Activists have dismissed a government decree to allow opposition parties
after decades of Baath party rule. Multi-party rule was a key demand of protesters who have been taking to
the streets in large numbers across Syria since mid-March to call for
the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. Mrs Clinton repeated an earlier statement that the United States
believed Mr Assad had lost legitimacy in Syria. "We've seen the Assad regime continue and intensify its assault against
its own people this week," she said on Thursday. "We think to date the government is responsible for the deaths of more
than 2,000 people of all ages." "People are being slaughtered like sheep while walking in the street" -
Hama resident She added that the US and its allies were working to apply more pressure
on Syria beyond the addition of more individuals to a sanctions blacklist. Human rights have estimated that more than 1,600 civilians have been
killed since anti-government protests began in March. At least 150 people have been killed since Sunday, mainly in Hama, the
rights groups say, as the military intensifies its efforts to quell dissent. Mr Assad blames the current violence on "armed criminal gangs" backed by
unspecified foreign powers.
'Sad fate' International criticism of Syria has been mounting since the UN Security
Council adopted a statement on Wednesday condemning the government of
President Assad for "widespread violations of human rights and the use
of force against civilians". President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, long an ally of Syria, said Mr
Assad would "face a sad fate" unless he urgently carried out reforms and
reconciled with the opposition. Cannot play media.You do not have the correct version of the flash
player. Download the correct version The BBC's Jim Muir says almost no information is coming from Hama, as
unverified footage claims to show tanks on the move in the city And EU states extended their sanctions against Syria, adding more names
to a list including President Assad and 34 other people as well as firms
linked to the military. They stopped short of targeting the oil industry
and banks, however. Dozens of people are believed to have been killed in a five-day military
assault on Hama, with residents saying on Thursday that tanks had shot
their way into Assi (Orontes) Square, in the centre of the city of
800,000 people. Activists said as many as 30 more people were killed in Hama late on
Wednesday, after Ramadan prayers. Communication with the city is all but completely cut off, as are water
and electricity, correspondents say. One resident who escaped the city on Wednesday told the BBC it looked
"exactly like a battlefield... like a Gaza Strip kind of city. Like some
villages in Iraq when the US army invaded it. That's how it looks like". He said artillery was firing at buildings and snipers were shooting at
anyone they saw on the streets. Many people had left the city, he said, but for those left, food and
medicine were running low. Another resident said "people are being slaughtered like sheep while
walking in the street. "I saw with my own eyes one young boy on a motorcycle who was carrying
vegetables being run over by a tank," the man told Associated Press news
agency.
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