Syrian city of Homs under siege

According to the reports, the Syrian army has deployed around the city and some neighborhoods have been disconnected from the electricity and cellular networks.

The reports of gunfire follow reports from earlier in the weekend that at least three Syrian women were shot dead near a seaside city where soldiers and tanks had deployed to try to quell anti-government protests over the weekend.

Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights says the women were protesting the siege and the cutting of electricity and phone lines when they were shot by plainclothes security forces or pro-government thugs.

Saturday's shooting occurred in the al-Qoz neighborhood, about a southeast of Banias. Qurabi says gunfire is continuing and several other people have been wounded.

 Syrian tanks rolled into Banias Saturday in an escalating crackdown by President Bashar Assad against anti-regime protesters.

The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS) on Thursday accused the government of carrying out a ten day massacre against on unarmed civilians.

More than 800 Syrians are thought to have been killed in the riots which first broke out seven weeks ago.