Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Battle for the Cities

Latest death toll in military operations in Syria today: 136

2020 GMT: Pro-reform demonstration today in Casablanca in Morocco:

2015 GMT: Silent, candle-lit vigil in Amuda in northeast Syria tonight for the victims of today's violence:

1950 GMT: Claimed video of three defecting soldiers in the village of Quriyya outside Deir Ez Zor in northeastern Syria --- protesters chant, “The people want the military to carry out a revolution against the regime”, and try to get the soldiers to join in.

1940 GMT: The Sunday routine of pro-reform demonstrations in Morocco's capital Rabat and largest city Casablanca continued today --- pictures from the march in Casablanca:

1910 GMT: Syria's National Organisation for Human Rights puts today's death toll at 136, with at least 100 killed in Hama. Others were slain died in Deir Ez Zor and Al Bukamal in the northeast and Harak in the south.

1850 GMT: Syrian state news agency SANA has a different take on events today, "Pro-Reform Activities Continue across Syria":

Activities in support of the comprehensive reform program under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad continued across the country, with the participants voicing rejection of all forms of vandalism and attempts to destabilize the country.

In Hasaka, the citizens of al-Shadadeh city and the neighboring villages denounced the criminal acts of saboteurs who are destroying national institutions and killing citizens.

The participants stressed that the practices of criminals who are terrorizing citizens debunk their allegations to be claiming demands.

1840 GMT: Earlier today, we reported the claim of residents that 42 people had been wounded when Syrian security forces threw nail bombs at a demonstration in Harasta outside Damascus (see 1545 GMT). Video of people attending the wounded:

1655 GMT: Earlier this afternoon, Al Jazeera English's James Boys filed this report on the fighting in western Libya's Nafusa Mountains:

Opposition tanks continued their assault on Qaddafi troops in Tiji, the last regime stronghold in the mountains, located 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of Tripoli.

Meanwhile, an estimated 14 insurgents were killed and more than 20 wounded in a second day of heavy fighting on the front near Zlitan, 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of Tripoli. The opposition has advanced about 3 kilometres but has not solidified their gains.

In north-central Libya, the insurgents said they had moved closer to Brega and were now positioned 5 to 7 kilometres (3 to 4 miles) east of the town.

1645 GMT: People in Homs in Syria rally in support of the victims in Hama, Deir Ez Zor, and elsewhere:

And in Taftanaz in the north:

1635 GMT: From The New York Times:

Hama residents reached by telephone offered wrenching accounts, telling of youths trying to block the way of tanks with little more than sticks, stones and iron bars. Some of the young men in the town, who have manned barricades nightly for weeks, set fire to tires. Hospitals appealed for donations of blood as the toll mounted through the day, and videos smuggled out of the city by Internet showed gray columns of smoke billowing over the city’s streets. It was unclear whether tanks had entered the heart of the city or remained on its outskirts.

“Massacres, massacres are taking place here,” shouted Obada Arwany, an activist in the city. “History is repeating itself. It is repeating itself.”

Sobbing, Mr. Arwany said residents shouted “God is great” as they stood in the tanks’ paths. He said that he had seen dead and wounded scattered among the barricades in the streets, the firing too ferocious for residents to try to retrieve or rescue them.

1630 GMT: A march in Darraya outside the Syrian capital Damascus, in sympathy with those who died across the country today:

And a gathering of support in Saraqeb in Idlib Province in the northwest:

1545 GMT: Two residents have claimed that at least 42 people were injured when Syrian forces threw nail bombs at a demonstration in the Damascus suburb of Harasta.

Syrian forces have arrested Sheikh Nawaf al-Bashir, head of the main Baqqara tribe in the Deir Ez Zor Province in the northeast. Another tribal leader has warned of rebellion against the Assad regime if al-Bahair is not freed.

Secret police agents arrested Bashir, who commands the loyalty of an estimated 1.2 million Baqqara, in Ein Qirsh district of Damascus on Saturday afternoon. Hours before his arrest, Bashir told Reuters he was striving to stop armed resistance to a military assault on the city of Deir ez-Zor and to convince inhabitants to stick to peaceful methods, despite killings by security forces.

1455 GMT: Video from Harak in southern Syria, where several people were killed today by security forces --- unarmed people defy soldiers and tanks with their shouts:

1340 GMT: Demonstration today in the Dablan section of Homs in Syria:

1300 GMT: Egyptian protesters say they will suspend their Tahrir Square sit-in during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, returning to the Cairo square to press for reforms after the month is over.

Twenty-six political parties and protest movements said in a joint statement that their three-week sit-in had succeeded in achieving some of their demands, "pushing the Egyptian revolution a step forward". It continued, "But based on our belief that sit-ins are a means, and not a goal, the political parties and youth movements have decided to temporarily suspend their sit-in during the holy month of Ramadan."

1250 GMT: A pro-reform march in Taiz in Yemen today:

1245 GMT: Claimed footage of a general strike in Binnish in northwest Syria in sympathy with the victims of Hama:

And a strike in the coastal city of Lattakia:

1240 GMT: Clashes broke out early today in the opposition centre of Benghazi in eastern Libya.

Mahmoud Shammam, the spokesman for the opposition's National Transitional Council, said the fighting started when opposition forces attacked a militia that helped about 300 regime loyalists break out of jail on Friday. The insurgents surrounded the barracks in which the militia, which calls itself the Nida Brigade, was holed up.

Shammam said at least six opposition fighters were killed in the clashes, which involved rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. He said the barracks was brought under control at 8 a.m., as 30 men surrendered: "We consider them members of the fifth column."

Other regime militia and escapees from the prison were apparently still at large.

Claimed footage of the fighting:

1222 GMT: Claimed footage of a tank firing on protesters in Maarat al-Num'an in northwest Syria:

See also Syria Video Special: The Military Assault on Hama

1220 GMT: Ammar Qorabi, who heads the National Organisation for Human Rights, says at least 95 people have been killed in Hama today. Qorabi said 26 others had been killed across Syria by military operations.

1210 GMT: Back from a break to find Syrian State TV's explanation of the violence in Hama today --- dozens of gunmen are on rooftops "shooting intensively to terrorize citizens".

The State news agency SANA asserted, "Armed groups in Hama set police stations on fire, vandalized public and private properties, set roadblocks and barricades and burned tyres at the entrance of the city and in its streets. Army units are removing the barricades and roadblocks set by the armed groups at the entrance of the city."

0910 GMT: Reem Haddad of Syrian State TV has told Al Jazeera that the military had to go into Hama because daily life had become impossible: "It is no longer a part of Hama. It's as if it belongs to another planet. It's not acceptable."

0905 GMT: A video has been posted of a man slain in Hama, his head blown away. (Warning: This clip is extremely graphic.)

0900 GMT: A protest in Idlib Province in northwestern Syria in support of the people of Hama:

0830 GMT: AFP is reporting that at least 45 people have been killed in the military assault on Hama in Syria.

A member of the Local Coordination Committee of Syria has said on Al Jazeera that 48 people are dead.

An activist reports that there are at least 104 wounded in Hawrani and Al-Badr Hospitals. He adds that three people have been killed and 16 injured in Harak in Daraa Province in southern Syria, as security forces raid homes and take away people.

0720 GMT: We have now moved the videos from this morning's attack on the Syrian city of Hama to a separate entry.

0655 GMT: Confusion continues over the circumstances around Thursday's assassination of the military commander of the Libyan opposition, General Abdel Fattah Younis.

The head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil said yesterday that, just before his death, Yunis had been summoned from the front by a committee of four judges with the knowledge of the NTC’s executive committee.

However, military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said that the judges who summoned Yunis for questioning did not have the authority do so and that the Minister of Defence had written a letter recalling the arrest warrant.

0630 GMT: The death toll in Hama in Syria has just been updated to 24, with 51 wounded.

0615 GMT: Reuters reports from residents that the Syrian military's operation against Hama this morning has killed at least 17 civilians.

Tanks were reportedly firing four shells per minute into and around northern Hama, as electricity and water supplies to the main neighbourhoods was cut.

One doctor (also quoted in our inital update at 0530 GMT) said there were 14 bodies and 51 people wounded at Badr Hospital. He claimed tanks were surrounding another hospital, al-Horani, where there were three bodies and scores of wounded.

A resident said snipers had climbed onto the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison.

0610 GMT: Thousands attend Saturday's funeral of a protester in the Kisweh suburb of Damascus:

0545 GMT: An anti-regime protest in Al Dair in Bahrain yesterday:

0540 GMT: Scenes from a large protest march in Taiz in Yemen on Saturday:

0530 GMT: We open with the situation in Syria, where it appears the Assad regime has moved to re-assert control over cities which had been "lost" to protesters in recent weeks. 

Saturday was filled with unconfirmed reports of the Syrian military shelling and then moving into areas of Deir Ez Zor, the city in the northeast where security forces had withdrawn as hundreds of thousands of people came out in anti-regime protests. The activist group Syrian Revolution Co-ordination Union said at least six civilians were killed by the shelling: "More tank columns are heading to Deir ez-Zor. By using heavy weapons, security forces are waging war against their own people."

Claimed video of the tanks moving to Deir Ez Zor:

And residents of Hama, Syria's fourth-largest city, are reporting this morning that tanks have moved in. A doctor claimed at least one civilian had been killed in the Bab Sbaa area in the northern section of the city: "Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machineguns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants."

Meanwhile, protest continues in other areas. There is shaky footage of a march in the Mazzeh section of Damascus, and this footage is from protests in Harasta outside the capital:

Claimed video of a general strike in Lattakia on the coast: