Syria has been effective in shutting down communication and making people disappear. Unfortunately, due to a lack of oil, few in western politics are that interested. Without many financial links, the options are extremhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifely limited.
Syria's regime intensified its chokehold on protesters calling for the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad on Monday, combining brutal force with a communications clampdown that some activists said threatened to snuff out the revolt that has spread throughout the country.
Hundreds more were arrested in Homs and Banias and gunfire and troops were reported in suburbs of Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 400 people had been rounded up in the coastal town of Banias since Saturday, adding to an estimated 7,000 already in detention across the country.
A human rights campaigner in Homs said snipers were deployed in several residential neighbourhoods. "Hundreds have fled from three villages just to the southwest of Homs where tanks had deployed," the campaigner told Reuters.
