Al Asad is determined to crush the uprising

Syrian  army vehicles deployed in the central industrial city of Homs.   Syrian soldiers and tanks executing a nationwide crackdown on regime opponents surrounded the city of Hama yesterday, which President Bashar Al Asad\'s father laid waste to in 1982 to stamp out an earlier uprising, an activist said.
Forces also used clubs to disperse 2,000 demonstrators on a northern university campus.
Al Asad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is trying to crush an uprising that exploded nearly two months ago and is now posing the gravest threat to his family\'s 40-year ruling dynasty.
The level of violence is intensifying as forces move into more volatile areas, and the US called the crackdown \"barbaric\".
Human rights activist Mustafa Osso said troops and tanks have deployed around the central city of Hama, known for the bloody 1982 revolt crushed by the regime, and security forces were detaining people.

In another echo of that earlier uprising, the Syrian army shelled residential areas in central and southern Syria on Wednesday, killing 18 people, a human rights group said.
The shelling evoked memories of Al Asad\'s father and predecessor, Hafez, whose most notorious act was shelling Hama in 1982.
He levelled the city to crush a Sunni uprising there, killing 10,000 to 25,000 people, according to Amnesty International estimates.
Conflicting figures exist and Syria has made no official estimate.
Other activists said security forces used clubs to disperse about 2,000 demonstrators late on Wednesday at the university campus in Aleppo city.
The intensifying military operation and arrest raids seemed to be an effort to pre-empt another day of protests expected throughout the country today.
More than 750 people have been killed and thousands detained since the uprising against Al Asad\'s autocratic rule began in mid-March. The revolt was touched off by the arrest of teenagers, inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, who scrawled anti-regime graffiti on a wall.

Syria\'s private Al Watan newspaper reported yesterday that Al Asad met for four hours with a delegation of Sunni clerics from Hama. who asked him to solve some problems pending since 1982, such as people living in exile since then.
\"President Al Asad accepted to study the case as long as it includes people who are known to be loyal to the nation,\" the paper said.
Since the uprising began, authorities have made announcements about reforms on Thursdays to try and head off protests on Fridays.
This week was no different The state-run news agency, Sana said Prime Minister Adel Safar introduced a new programme to employ 10,000 university graduates annually at government institutions.
Rami Abdul Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said yesterday that arrests are continuing throughout the country before expected protests today.
\"Authorities are detaining any person who might demonstrate,\" he said.
In the northern city of Deir Al Zor, authorities placed cameras inside and outside the Osman Bin Afan mosque, where many worshippers were demonstrating after prayers, he said.
Abdul Rahman added that many former detainees were forced to sign documents reading that they were not subjected to torture and that they will not take part in future \"riots\".
Al Asad is determined to crush the uprising despite international pressure.
\"The Syrian government continues to follow the lead of its Iranian ally in resorting to brute force and flagrant violations of human rights and suppressing peaceful protests,\" said the White House\'s press secretary. \"And history is not on the side of this kind of action.\"
A US State Department spokesman called the Syrian attacks \"barbaric\", adding \"We don\'t throw the word ‘barbaric\' around here very often.\"