The EU is discussing sanctions against the Assad regime though how much of an impact that will have is debatable. Al Jazeera:
White buses brought in hundreds of soldiers in full combat gear into Douma, a witness told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. Pro-democracy protesters have tried to march from the suburb into the centre of the capital in the last two weeks but have been dispersed by security forces.
More than 2,000 security police deployed in Douma on Tuesday, manning checkpoints and checking identity cards to arrest pro-democracy sympathisers, the witness, a former soldier, said.
He said he saw several lorries in the streets equipped with heavy machine guns and members of the plainclothes secret police carrying assault rifles. He believed the soldiers to be Republican Guards, among the units most loyal to Bashar al-Assad, the president.
Meanwhile, Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah said security forces have killed up to 35 civilians since they entered the southern city of Deraa at dawn on Monday.
