Tanks Storm Syrian Flashpoint City Banias

Syrian troops backed by tanks swept early Saturday into Banias, a hub of anti-regime protests, as residents formed human chains in a bid to halt the military operation, rights activists said.

Electricity and communications were cut as the tanks entered along three axes heading towards the southern sector of the city on the Mediterranean coast, the bastion of the protesters.

Protesters were resisting by forming human chains, the activists said, reached by telephone from Nicosia.

Tanks also encircled the nearby town of Baida while an army boat patrolled offshore, they added.

The military sweep into Banias in northwestern Syria comes two days after a convoy of 40 military vehicles pulled out of the southern town of Daraa, another protest center, which the military had locked down since April 25.

On Wednesday, residents of Banias said dozens of armored vehicles, including tanks and troops reinforcements, had been deployed on the outskirts of Banias.

"It looks like they are preparing to attack the town, like they did in Daraa," one activist said.

Dozens of people were killed during the 10-day military assault on Daraa, launched with what activists termed "indiscriminate" shelling of the town.

But General Riad Haddad, the military's political department chief, insisted that troops in Daraa "did not confront the protesters. We continue searching for terrorists hidden in several places. As the army, we never confronted the protesters."

Human rights groups say that more than 600 people have been killed and 8,000 jailed or gone missing in the crackdown on protesters since demonstrations erupted in mid-March.