Tanks Enter Syria's Third-Largest City

Homs, a city of a million people, is under siege as President Bashar al-Assad seeks to crush his opposition.

Tanks have entered Homs, Syria's third-largest city, to quell anti-goverment protests that have now gone on for seven weeks. Human-rights groups put the death toll of the uprising at around 800 following a similar siege in the city of Deraa, where the demonstrations started back in March. Homs, a city of about a million people, has been the site of some of Syria's heaviest protesting against President Bashar al-Assad. The president had promised democratic reforms when the uprising began but has since used the full range of state military and security forces to crack down on activists, calling them “terrorists” and justifying the attacks by claiming the protesters have killed civilians by the dozens.