Heavy gunfire was heard as at least three residential neighborhoods were hit by tank fire in the besieged city of Homs, which has experienced some of the largest anti-government demonstrations in recent weeks.
Homs is also the city where some army troops balked at the mission to kill civilians and engaged in a gun battle with secret police who fired at civilians sheltering behind the army vehicles:
Recently, soldiers and secret police began shooting at each other in Syria. This happened in the city of Homs, where the police opened fire on the thousands of anti-government demonstrators. Some of the demonstrators ran behind nearby army vehicles. The police kept firing at the demonstrators behind the army vehicles, and the soldiers in the line of fire began firing back. The police yelled at the soldiers to get out of the way, but the soldiers kept shooting. Eventually, the army officers got their troops to stop firing. The soldiers were there to use their armored vehicles, including a few tanks, to intimidate the crowds.
Firing tank rounds from a distance will reduce opportunities for such a situation to repeat. But unless Assad wants to go full Hama and obliterate whole blocks, I don't think that the regime can avoid putting troops in a position where they have to make a choice. It all depends on what choice they make. And how many troops make that choice across Syria.
Assad claims that they've turned the corner on restoring order, but the use of tank main guns as crowd control tools contradicts that confidence.
