The death toll in Syria's violent crackdown on opposition to president Bashar al-Assad climbed today, spurring Western efforts to pile diplomatic pressure on Damascus.
Human rights campaigners said assaults by Assad's forces across Syria in the past few days had killed at least 27 civilians, including 13 in Hama, where troops and tanks began a violent operation to regain control on Sunday.
Three more civilians were killed in Hama overnight, including two brothers, who died when pro-Assad militiamen fired at their car.
Two civilians were killed in the town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border, three in the city of Homs, two in the port city of Latakia and six in the Damascus suburb of Erbin after protests following night-time Ramadan prayers, rights activists said.
That brought the total to about 137 dead throughout Syria in the past three days, 93 of them in Hama, according to witnesses, residents and rights campaigners.
Tanks pounded residential neighbourhoods across Hama, the scene of a 1982 massacre, after evening prayers last night, the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, witnesses said. They also said a brief riot appeared to have broken out late last night at Hama's main prison.
State news agency SANA said "hundreds of masked gunmen on motorbikes" had set fire to the main law court in Hama yesterday afternoon and had also vandalised much of the building.
Syria's state news agency said "armed terrorist groups" had killed eight policemen in Hama. The government blames such groups for most killings in the five-month-old revolt, saying more than 500 soldiers and security personnel have died.
The plight of Hama has prompted many Syrians to stage solidarity marches since the start of Ramadan, but Assad's tough response suggests he will resist calls for change that have swept Syria and much of the Arab world this year.
Syria has incurred international opprobrium for its harsh measures, but need not fear the kind of foreign military intervention that Nato launched to back rebels in Libya.
The top US military officer called for a swift end to violence in Syria, but only diplomatic pressure was in view.
"There's no indication whatsoever that the Americans are, that we would get involved directly with respect to this," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the end of a visit to Iraq.
Consultations at the Security Council yesterday failed to produce agreement on adopting a Western-backed draft resolution condemning Syria or settling for a less binding statement.
European countries first circulated the draft resolution two months ago but Russia and China, both allies of Damascus, were opposed to it. Temporary council members Brazil, India, Lebanon and South Africa also said they did not support it.
Italy recalled its ambassador from Syria today in protest at the "horrible repression of the civilian population" and urged other European Union members to do the same.
The EU formally added five more Syrian officials to an existing list of 29 individuals headed by Dr Assad, whom the EU has targeted with asset freezes and travel bans.
The five include defence minister Ali Habib, the head of internal security and the intelligence chief in Hama, which the EU says was the scene of a civilian "massacre" at the weekend.
"Today further EU targeted sanctions on Syria come into force. The message is clear and unambiguous: those responsible for the repression will be singled out and held accountable," British foreign secretary William Hague said.