Gunfire erupted across a key port city in northeastern Syria on Sunday after the army sealed the area off, deploying tanks and cutting communications. Human rights activists said there were fatalities. Details were sketchy because telephone lines, Internet access and electricity apparently were cut in Banias. Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organisation for Human Rights, quoted an eyewitness who managed to flee Banias as saying people had been killed and injured. It was not clear whether they were civilians or security forces. Protests erupted in Syria more than three weeks ago and have been growing steadily every week, with tens of thousands of people calling for sweeping reforms in President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime. More than 170 people have been killed.
Assad said on Sunday that the country is "moving ahead on the road of comprehensive reforms," the state-run news agency Sana said. In recent weeks, Assad has answered the protesters with both force and limited concessions that have failed to appease an emboldened movement inspired by the Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.