Syria continues brutal crackdown

CNN) — Syrian security forces on Wednesday cranked up a full-court press on the restive city of Hama, witnesses said, and the U.N. Security Council again planned to tackle the nearly five-months-long crisis in the volatile Arab land.

Citizens in Hama describe a fearful metropolis under siege by security forces amid a military offensive, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and witnesses said communications have been shut off amid the military push.

Along with its military operations, the government is dealing with the instability. Syria’s parliament, meanwhile, plans to meet on Sunday to discuss “issues related to the homeland and citizens’ interests,” the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Wednesday.

“There is a big, ongoing military operation,” said the observatory’s Rami Abdul-Rahman. His group monitors the unrest in Syria through many contacts on the ground, and his sources report hearing explosions and seeing plumes of smoke. “There are great concerns of a massacre in the city.”

“The human situation is very bad,” said an eyewitness from an opposition movement who said he is in the center of Hama and asked not to be named for security reasons. He said people are fearing 1982 again — a reference to a deadly government crackdown there a few decades ago.

There have been dozens of deaths in Hama and other Syrian cities in recent days, but there was no official word on Wednesday casualties.

However, corpses remained on the ground Wednesday after tanks occupied parts of central Hama amid heavy shelling, said a resident who fled the city — a bastion of anti-government sentiment and the site of massive demonstrations.

Residents said the city is lacking food. Power and water are scarce and residents said they fear a humanitarian crisis. Across Hama, intermittent gunfire and shelling rang out, helicopters whirled overhead and government snipers took positions, making it difficult for people to venture out, residents said.