Syria sends in Deraa tanks where the uprising began (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) - the Syrian troops and tanks poured into Adraa Monday, seeking to crush the resistance in the city where broke first uplift for long months against autocratic 11 years of President Bashar al-Assad.

An activist said at least 18 people were killed in the first reported use of tanks in a centre of population since the beginning of peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in the city of the South, near the border with the JordanMarch 18.

The White House, deploring the "brutal violence used by the Government of the Syria against his people," said the President Barack Obama administration is studying targeted sanctions to clarify that "this behavior is unacceptable."

A U.S. official said that the measures envisaged include a freezing of assets and the prohibition of business U.S. relations.

Security forces have killed more than 350 civilians through the Syria since unrest erupted in Deraa, say rights groups. One-third of the victims were killed in the course of three days as the magnitude and the scope of a popular revolt against El-Assad grew.

Assad lifted State of 48 years of the Syria of emergency Thursday, but activists say that violence the following day, when 100 people were killed during demonstrations across the country, showed that it was not seriously to respond to calls for political freedom.

A leading human rights activist said of the security forces, which was also covered in the suburbs of Damascus agitated the Duma and Mouadhamiya, fire and to carry out arrests, were "a savage war designed to negate the Syria Democrats."

Raids on Monday suggested Assad, who took power when his father died in 2000 after having decided to Syria with a strong hand for 30 years, was determined to crush the opposition by force.

Militant opposition Ammar Qurabi, in contact with the Syrian opposition of Egypt, said at least 18 people were killed by artillery and tank bombardment in Deraa alone, with many more injured or missing.

News Agency State SANA said that the army penetrated Deraa in response to "calls for the aid" of residents and protect "extremist terrorist groups". He said clashes had led to the death of both sides, without giving details.

TANKS OUTSIDE MOSQUE

Earlier, a witness in Deraa told Reuters, he could see the body lying in a main street near the Omari mosque after eight tanks and two armoured vehicles were deployed in the old quarter.

"People are taking cover in homes." "I could see two-body near the mosque and nobody could come out and drag them later", the witness said.

Snipers were posted on government buildings and lattice of the army security forces had fired randomly in houses because the tanks moved in just after the dawn prayer, the witness said.

Tanks at the points of main entrance to Deraa has also shelled targets in the city, a resident named Mohsen said Al Jazeera, which showed images of a black cloud of smoke on buildings. "People cannot pass from one street to another because of the bombing."

Abdallah Abazaid, another activist, said Al Arabiya television he y "20 martyrs" and that the five officers and 10 soldiers refused orders to fire at residents.

"They have ceased to quit their positions because they found us with bare hands," said Abazaid. His comments about defection from the army could not be confirmed, but another witness said Al Jazeera as a unit commander and his troops fired on their side, apparently to allow people to drag the wounded from the street.

"I hope that Arab and Muslim nations to support the Syrian people." "The Syrian people is standing alone, unarmed and destitute, before arsenal," the imam of the mosque of Omari of Deraa said in the images broadcast by Al Jazeera.

Foreign journalists have mainly been expelled from the country, making it impossible to verify the situation on the ground. Macabre images displayed on the Internet by protesters the past few days appear to show the troops firing on unarmed crowds.

"THE OUTRAGEOUS VIOLENCE."

Assad has deepened alliance of his father Hafez Al-Assad with the Iran, onguiculé dos influence to the Lebanon and saved militants Hezbollah and Hamas, but he kept the front line of the Syria with calm Israel and held the indirect peace talks with the Jewish State.

Western critical of repression was initially muzzled, in part because of the fear that a collapse of his Alawi minority in the Sunni majority country could lead to sectarian conflict. But Friday Obama urged Assad to stop the "scandalous use of violence" to repress the demonstrations

Suhair al-Atassi, a leader of Syrian human rights activist, said authorities had launched "a savage war designed to negate the Syria Democrats."

"" President Assad's intentions were clear because he had publicly said it is ' prepared for the war "","Atassi said, referring to a speech from 30 March to the Parliament."

High Commissioner of the United Nations for the rights of man Navi Pillay called for detained activists and political prisoners to appear.

"The first step now is to immediately discontinue the use of violence, then conduct a full and independent investigation into the killings, including the murder of military and security officers and bring the perpetrators to justice."

The Organization of the United Nations, Great Britain, France, Germany and Portugal has asked the Security Council condemned the repression and urge adopted by the Government, the Council diplomats said, but it was not clear if the Russia and China would support the idea.