Syria rounds up thousands in crackdown: activists

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DAMASCUS: Syrian security forces rounded up thousands of men as they went house to house in a bid to crush an anti-regime protest movement in the coastal city of Banias on Monday, as shots rang out in a Damascus suburb surrounded by troops, activists said.

Protests organisers meanwhile called for a day of solidarity Tuesday with "prisoners of conscience" held in Syrian jails, according to a statement posted on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page.

Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said water, electricity and telephone lines have been cut off in Banias, on Syria's northwest Mediterranean coast.

"There were house-to-house raids overnight and it continued on Monday morning," Abdul Rahman said, adding that the men were being rounded up for questioning in a stadium based on lists of names.

"Thousands of men, including youths, have been rounded up by the army and security forces... to be interrogated and they are being beaten. More than 400 are still being held," the activist said.

He denounced the authorities for using brutal force to crush the protests, telling AFP: "The military solution is useless in Syria. Things will only be solved when a democratic society emerges." (AFP)