The European Union is to look at fresh sanctions this week against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime as violence escalates in central Syria.
The Syrian army shelled residential areas in central Syria on Wednesday, a sharp escalation in the government's attempts to crush a popular revolt against Assad's rule, according to activists and witnesses.
Asked by members of the European Parliament to explain why Assad's name was not on a list of 13 Syrian officials hit by EU sanctions, EU diplomacy chief Catherine Ashton said "we started with 13 people who were directly involved" in cracking down on protests.
"We'll look at it again this week," she added. "I assure you that my intention is to put the maximum political pressure that we can on Syria." Shells and gunfire rocked the anti-regime city of Homs on Wednesday as the army hunted down more dissidents in the flashpoint town of Banias, activists said.
"Shelling and automatic gunfire could be heard early (on) Wednesday in the (Homs) neighbourhood of Bab Amr and in nearby villages Mashada, Jobar and Sultanya," human rights activist Najati Tayara told AFP.
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He said the villages, with a combined population of some 100,000 inhabitants - many of them Bedouins - have been the target of a security operation since Monday.
The Syrian army had swept the agricultural area searching for weapons and spreading fear among the population, he said.
"This operation terrified residents and security agents took part in looting," Tayara said, adding that 50 tanks had rolled into the Sittin neighbourhood in Homs.
The Syrian army also kept up its security sweep of the flashpoint coastal city of Banias, scouting for "protest organisers yet to be arrested", said Rami Abdul Rahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"A tank has been stationed since Tuesday night on the square where Banias demonstrations are held," he said, adding that the northern port remained encircled by the army after weekend arrests put some 450 people behind bars.
In a bid to snuff out anti-regime protests, the Syrian army has deployed its tanks to several protest hubs and unleashed a wave of arrests focused on dissidents and protest organisers, local human rights activists said.
Syrian authorities are determined to crush the uprising, which began in the southern city of Daraa in mid-March and quickly spread nationwide.
The 27-state EU on Tuesday issued a range of sanctions including an arms embargo along with a travel ban and assets freeze targeting Assad's brother, four of his cousins and others in his inner circle.
Ashton had warned the Syrian leader that he could be next.
She faced a barrage of hard questions from Euro-MPs in the parliament over why the EU had spared Assad.
"Who in Europe is against putting Assad on the list? Which are the countries opposed to the EU taking the only decision possible? Tell us!" said Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit.
"There will be a solution in Syria only once Assad has quit office in Syria, so it's clear that Assad and his entire family must be put on the list not tomorrow, but today," he added.
Ashton said there had been "lots of debate" among the 27 states and that there were "lots of different views", but that she could not give the MEPs a list of countries for or against including Assad on the sanctions.
