Syrian tanks attack northeastern city – activist

NICOSIA – Syrian army tanks on Sunday launched a pre-dawn assault on Deir Ezzor, the largest city in the country’s northeast, a leading London-based rights activist told AFP.

Tanks entered several areas of the city on the Euphrates river about 450 kilometers (280 miles) from Damascus, and shelling was reported from at least three suburbs, said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon told Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who has been refusing to take his calls, to immediately end his deadly military campaign against opponents, becoming the latest global leader to do so.

“In a phone conversation with President Assad of Syria today, the secretary general expressed his strong concern and that of the international community at the mounting violence and death toll in Syria over the past days,” said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky late Saturday.

Ban “reflected to the Syrian president the clear message sent by the Security Council and urged the president to stop the use of military force against civilians immediately,” Nesirky said.

Ban’s call followed a pledge by the US, French and German leaders to consider new steps to punish Syria after a deadly crackdown on the first Friday of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting.

The Syrian government has sought to crush a democracy movement with brutal force, killing around 1,650 civilians and arresting thousands of dissenters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.