A 12-year-old boy has been killed in a Syrian city today as gunfire and shelling erupted in the central Syrian city of Homs.Over the last seven weeks, the city has become a flashpoint in the widespread uprising against President Bashar Assad's dictatorship.
It is not clear which side of the struggle killed the boy, but Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: 'It appears to be designed to punish his parents.'
He said that water, electricity and most forms of communications to the coastal city of Banias had been cut since troops in tanks and armoured vehicles rolled in and sealed the city off on Saturday.
Banias has been another protest hotbed where more than 200 people have been arrested including a 10-year-old boy.
One activist, who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal, said the death toll in the city had risen to six.
The national uprising has posed the most serious challenge to the 40-year rule of the Assads.
Bashar, who inherited power from his father in 2000, has launched a violent campaign against protesting Syrians aimed at crushing the revolt despite international condemnation.
The uprising started in mid-March following the arrest of teenagers who had written anti-regime graffiti on a wall in Daraa.
Protests spread quickly across the nation of 23million people, inspired by uprisings sweeping the Arab world.
Banias has a large power station and is one of the country's two oil refineries and is the main point of export for Syrian oil. Read More
