Supplies scarce as uprising continues

BEIRUT (AP):

The city at the heart of Syria's monthlong uprising ran low on food, water and medicine yesterday as the army sent in more tanks and reinforcements as part of a wide-ning crackdown against opponents of President Bashar Assad's autho-ritarian regime, witnesses said.

Two residents in Daraa said at least five army officers had sided with demonstrators, and conscripted soldiers sent into the city were quietly refusing orders to detain people at checkpoints and were allowing some people through to get scarce supplies. But the Syrian government denied that there had been any splits in the military, which is seen as fiercely loyal to Assad.

Gunfire and sporadic explosions were heard in Daraa, two days after the military rolled in, backed by tanks and snipers. The army also deployed tanks around the Damascus suburb of Douma and the coastal city of Banias, the site of large demonstrations recently.

"We have no electricity, no water, no telephones and no bread," resident Abdullah Abazeid told The Associated Press by satellite telephone. "The situation is terrible."