Amman, July 31
Syrian tanks firing shells and machineguns stormed the city of Hama on Sunday, killing at least 100 civilians in a move to crush demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, residents and activists said.

Assad's forces began their assault on the city, scene of a 1982 massacre, at dawn after besieging it for nearly a month. The official state news agency said scores of were on rooftops and "shooting intensively to terrorise citizens".

But residents said tanks and snipers were shooting at unarmed residential districts, where inhabitants had set up makeshift road blocks to try and stop their advance, and that an irregular Alawite militia loyal to Assad, known as 'shabbiha' accompanied the invading forces in buses.

The President and the ruling family are from the minority Alawite sect, which has dominated Syria, a majority Sunni country, since the ruling Baath Party took power in a 1963 coup. In 2000, Assad succeeded his late father, keeping the autocratic political system he inherited intact, while expanding the share of the Assad family of the economy through monopolies awarded to relatives and friends.

Citing hospital officials, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll in Hama was likely to rise, with dozens badly wounded in the attack. A doctor, who did not want to be further identified for fear of arrest, told Reuters that most bodies were taken to the city's Badr, al-Horani and Hikmeh hospitals.

Scores of people were wounded and blood for transfusions was in short supply, he said by telephone from the city, which has a population of around 700,000. "Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machineguns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants," the doctor said, the sound of machinegun fire crackling in the background.

The state news agency said military units were fighting gunmen armed with rocket propelled grenades and machineguns. "Armed groups in Hama set police stations on fire, vandalised public and private property, set roadblocks and barricades and burned tyres at the entrance of the city and in its streets."

Yasser Saadeldine, a Syrian Islamist living in exile in Qatar, said the attack of Hama marks a significant escalation in Assad's reliance on the military to try and crush the uprising. "Assad has chosen to dig deeper into the security option, especially with a retreat in the tough international and regional stances against the regime," Saadedine told Reuters. "Assad is trying to resolve the matter before Ramadan when every daily fasting prayer threatens to become another Friday. But he is pouring oil on a burning fire and now the Hama countryside is rising in revolt ," said Saadedine, in reference the Muslim holy month, which begins in Syria on Monday.

Another resident said that in Sunday's assault, bodies were lying uncollected in the streets and so the death toll would rise. Army snipers had climbed onto the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison, he said.

Assad is trying to end an uprising against his 11-year rule that broke out in March, inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, and has spread across the country. Syrian authorities have expelled most independent journalists, making it difficult to verify reports of violence. — Reuters

Islamabad, July 31
The US lodged a strong protest with Pakistani authorities after Ambassador Cameron Munter was stopped at the airport here by officials enforcing a rule that requires all foreign diplomats to have a “no-objection certificate” for travelling outside Islamabad.

Munter, who reportedly possessed the NoC, was stopped at Benazir Bhutto International Airport and asked about the document while he was travelling to Karachi last week.

The envoy “strongly protested” about the incident, which was subsequently taken up with President Asif Ali Zardari, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The incident reflected the tensions that have characterised US-Pakistan relations since Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed by American special forces in a covert raid in Abbottabad on May 2.

Pakistan had threatened to impose “more formal restrictions” on travel by all US diplomats and to require prior notification but dropped the demand when the American administration threatened similar restrictions for Pakistani diplomats in the US, an unnamed US official was quoted as saying by ABC News.

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence began keeping a close watch on American diplomats in the wake of the raid against bin Laden as it believed the CIA was running a secret network of American and Pakistani operatives in the country.

The Foreign Office sought to play down the incident involving Ambassador Munter, with spokesperson Tehmina Janjua saying “no US-specific” travel restrictions had been applied. “However, there are general guidelines regarding travel of Pakistan-based diplomats, designed only to ensure their safety and security, which have existed for a long time,” she said in a statement. — PTI 

Washington, July 31
The US government has launched forfeiture proceedings against the Rs 3-crore house of Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai, accused of funnelling ISI's cash into America to influence lawmakers on Kashmir, on grounds of violation of money laundering rules and Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The house of 62-year-old Fai, the head of the Kashmiri American Council who has been charged with being an unregistered agent of ISI, is based in Fairfax - an effluent suburb of Washington-in Virginia and values more than $700,000 (nearly Rs 3 crore), according to publicly available records. Fai has been put under house arrest with electronic surveillance and an unsecured bond of $100,000.

Assistant US Attorney Gordon Kromberg told a US District Court in Virginia recently that the government has initiated the forfeiture on his house. Fai's attorney Nina Ginsberg had told the court that the house has equity of $500,000 and this could be available for bond if necessary.

However, Kromberg said the fact that Fai's house has equity in it is interesting, but it is not particularly helpful because he has violated Foreign Agents Registration act, which is "a specified unlawful activity under the money laundering laws." "As a result as noted in the complaint the government is seeking forfeiture of the proceeds of the violation consisting of millions of dollars that Mr Fai got from the ISI over the past 20 years." — PTI