White House strongly condemns Syria violence as regime attacks continue (UPDATES)

As Syrian security forces reportedly widened their attack on the northwestern town of Banias, days after an ambush on a military patrol there left at least nine people dead, the White House condemned the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

A strongly worded statement issued Tuesday came after two weeks during which the Syrian regime admitted using live ammunition against anti-government protesters resulting in a reported 200 deaths.

On Tuesday, meanwhile, Banias was completely cut off from the outside world overnight and security forces had raked the nearby village of Baida with gunfire, according to Agence France-Presse. "Security forces and armed men are firing machine guns indiscriminately at the village," a witness reportedly said.

The Associated Press reported that pro-government armed men were also attacking the village of Beit Jnad on Tuesday.

On Sunday, security forces and the army reportedly killed at least four pro-reform protesters in Banias and left another 17 wounded, Al Jazeera quoted human rights groups as saying.

The White House statement read: "We are deeply concerned by reports that Syrians who have been wounded by their government are being denied access to medical care. The escalating repression by the Syrian government is outrageous, and the United States strongly condemns the continued efforts to suppress peaceful protesters. President Assad and the Syrian government must respect the universal rights of the Syrian people, who are rightly demanding the basic freedoms that they have been denied."

"Security forces and the army continue to assault Banias and we know what they are preparing for us," AFP quoted Anas al-Shuhri, one of the leaders of the opposition movement challenging the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, as saying. "There is a shortage of bread in the city, electricity is cut and the majority of phone lines are too."

Security forces killed a student Monday during a protest at Damascus University in the capital, bringing the death toll to well more than 170 after more than three weeks of unrest, the AP reported.

International pressure mounted on Assad this week, with key European governments and the United Nations denouncing a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters, notably in the southern city of Daraa.

The U.S., France, Germany and Britain demanded an immediate end to the bloodshed, ending an apparent reluctance by Western powers to criticize Assad outright.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said late last month that Assad was a "different leader" than Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, and that many members of Congress who had visited the country "believe he's a reformer".

But the criticism has grown, and State Department spokesman Mark Toner this week called on the government to lift restrictions on the media and "to refrain from any further violence against peaceful protesters."

"Reform and repression are incompatible," the French Foreign Ministry reportedly said.

— Freya Petersen