Syrians held in follow-up raids

Dozens of Syrians were arrested in a series of security swoops across the country today, hours after the army smashed through a city at the centre of the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the arrests were in several Damascus suburbs and in a northern coastal city of Jableh.

They arrests follow yesterday’s raids on Daraa, where the uprising started last month. At least 11 were killed there by troops yesterday.

The raids reflect the regime’s effort to impose military control on the centres of the protests.

SOHR’s chief Rami Abdul-Rahman said phone lines with Daraa have been cut.

Rights groups say the crackdown since mid-March has killed more than 350 people in Syria.