DEIR EZZOR, Syria — Syrian security forces backed by tanks Sunday killed 20 civilians in the city of Deir Ezzor, rights activists said, and at least seven died in a central town as the army cracked down on protests.
“The operations are focused on al Jura district, where the army and security forces opened fire, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens of others,” according to Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights head Abdel Karim Rihawi.
He said that security forces in another tank assault killed at least seven more civilians in Hula, a town in the central province of Homs.
“About 25 tanks and troop carriers entered Hula and carried out military operations,” another activist, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human rights, said earlier, giving a death toll of four.
The deaths came as Syrian president Bashar al Assad defended Sunday his security forces’ deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests as the “duty of state” to confront “outlaws.”
“Syria is on the path to reforms. To deal with outlaws who cut off roads, seal towns and terrorize residents is a duty of the state, which must defend security and protect the lives of civilians,” he said in a meeting with Lebanese foreign minister Adnan Mansur, state news agency SANA reported.
His statement came the day after a personal appeal by UN chief Ban Ki-moon for Assad to halt the bloodshed.
Ban, in a telephone call, “expressed his strong concern and that of the international community at the mounting violence and death toll in Syria over the past days,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said late Saturday.
Ban’s call followed a pledge by the US, French and German leaders to consider new steps to punish Syria after security forces killed more than 30 people on the first Friday of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting.
In contrast to Assad’s reference to outlaws, Pope Benedict XVI called Sunday for an adequate response to the “legitimate aspirations” of the Syrian people.
“I am following with deep concern the dramatic and increasing episodes of violence in Syria that have led to numerous victims and grave suffering,” the pontiff said in a weekly address to pilgrims outside Rome.
Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem said Saturday that “free and transparent” elections to a new parliament would be held in Syria by the end of 2011, as he met with ambassadors posted to Damascus.
Muallem stressed “the commitment of the Syrian leadership to the continued reform process and implementation of measures announced by President Assad.”
The embattled president issued a decree Thursday allowing opposition political parties.