PARIS/AMMAN - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday he wanted further sanctions against the Syriangovernment after it continued to crack down on protesters.
Syrian forces killed two people on Thursday when they firedat a pro-democracy protest in the provincial capital of Deiral-Zor, residents said.
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Defying the crackdown in SyriaSyrian forces kill four villagers in tank-backed assaults"The attitude of the Syrian president is unacceptable ... wemust strengthen sanctions against the regime which is applyingthe most brutal methods against its population," Sarkozy said ina television interview.The incident was part of an escalating crackdown against dissent in the tribal region bordering Iraq's Sunni heartland.
Military Intelligence agents also injured seven protesters who had gathered in the main square of the city on the Euphrates river in the remote northeast.A statue of President Bashar Assad's brother Basel had stood in the square but security forces removed it two months ago to stop demonstrators from smashing it."A crowd of 1,500 had shown up for the usual noon demonstration despite the intense heat. Thousands more have descended on the square after the killings, and there are now around 10,000 people there," said one witness, a computer programmer who declined to give his name for fear of arrest.Despite being the center of Syria's modest oil production, Deir al-Zor is among the poorest regions in the country of 20 million people.Little oil revenue is invested in the desert area and water shortages over the last six years, which experts say have largely been caused by mismanagement of resources and corruption, have decimated agricultural production.This has weakened support for the Assad family, which has ruled Syria with an iron fist since 1970, among Sunni tribes in Deir al-Zor, whom the authorities had allowed to carry arms as a counterweight to a Kurdish population further north.