Syria troops disperse Deraa rally

There is a heavy security presence in the port city of Latakia

Syrian troops have deployed in force in the northern city of Latakia, where at least 12 people have died in a wave of unrest that has shaken the regime.

Officials blamed foreign forces for the violence, but residents said pro-government gangs started the clashes.

The authorities said on Sunday they would end decades of emergency rule, after protests erupted in at least six cities on Friday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is expected to address the nation soon.

Sources say Mr Assad is likely to announce on Tuesday that he is lifting the state of emergency after nearly 50 years and taking steps to annul other restrictions on civil liberties and political freedoms.

There are great hopes among many Syrians that President Assad’s speech will put an end to the recent tension, says the BBC’s Lina Sinjab in the capital, Damascus.

The unrest started in the southern town of Deraa on 18 March and has spread to several cities nationwide. It is the biggest threat to the rule of President Assad, 45, who succeeded his father Hafez on his death in 2000.

Officials say more than 30 people have died since the unrest began, but activists put the toll at more than 100.

Some 90 people have been wounded in this weekend’s violence in Latakia

Syrian troops are now in control of Latakia, 350km (220 miles) north-west of Damascus, our correspondent says.

The government says 12 people were killed during clashes on Friday and Saturday, but residents say the number could be higher.

The streets of Latakia, home to 450,000 people, were completely deserted on Sunday and all shops remained closed.

An Associated Press photographer said two police cars had been smashed in the main Sheikh Daher square.

The offices of SyriaTel, the mobile phone company owned in large part by a cousin of President Assad, had been burned, he said.

At one of the city’s two hospitals, officials said they had treated 90 wounded people on Friday. Many had gunshot wounds to the hands or feet, while others were in critical condition, he added.

Deadly violence has also gripped cities in southern Syria for 10 days.

On Saturday, demonstrators set fire to the Baath party’s local headquarters in the town of Tafas.

On Sunday, several hundred men were holding a sit-in at the Omari Mosque in the nearby town of Deraa, the original focus of protests and scene of a crackdown by security forces last week.

There have also been protests in Hama, a northern city where in 1982 the forces of President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, killed thousands of people and razed much of the old quarter to put down an armed uprising by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

Protesters have vowed to keep taking to the streets until all their demands for more freedom are met.

The government has tried to calm the situation by promising concessions.

Analysts say there are divergent views within the Syrian leadership on handing the crisis – one group favours a crackdown on the dissent while the other prefers dialogue.

Jihad Makdissi, the spokesman for the Syrian embassy in London, told the BBC World Service that an inquiry was under way into the violence and deaths during recent anti-government protests.

He said the president had intervened to put an end to a “chaotic situation” in Latakia, where people were “vandalising government institutions” and burning cars.

Mr Makdissi said that the promised reforms would include more freedom of speech and a more “democratic environment”.

In London, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released a list of 41 names of people reportedly detained on Friday in and around Damascus, Homs, Deir al-Zor and other cities.

Amnesty International has issued a list of 93 people it says have been detained.

Reuters news agency meanwhile reported Sunday that two of its journalists in Syria – producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji – were missing.

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