Syrian tanks moved into northern towns near the Turkish border Syrian security forces shot dead two anti-government protesters near Damascus and deployed tanks in a town near the Turkish border, activists said on Monday. \"Two demonstrators were killed and eight wounded on Sunday night as security forces opened fire to disperse a protest in Hajar Aswad,\" a community in Damascus province, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Activists said another eight people were wounded early on Monday in an army operation in Idlib province, northwest Syria.
\"At dawn, the army raided the village of Hass and has reached the outskirts of Kfar Nubl. It has taken control of nearby Kafr Roma and soldiers have deployed between Hass and Kfar Nubl,\" said one of the activists, contacted by telephone.
They said tanks rolled into Maaret Numan, also near the Turkish border in the northwest of the country, after the town came under heavy shelling.
Elsewhere, more than 20 people were arrested in several districts of the flashpoint central city of Hama, the Observatory said, adding that angry residents countered by burning tyres and hurling stones.
Syria\'s embattled President Bashar al-Asad sacked the governor of Hama province on Saturday, a day after a crowd of an estimated half million people rallied against his regime in the city.
Security forces on Monday also carried out arrests in Nassib, a village in Daraa province where the revolt erupted on March 15. \"Fourteen people were arrested in the village on the border with Jordan,\" said an activist.
Rights groups say that more than 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people arrested by security forces since mid-March.