Syria\'s army launched a major tank assault Sunday on the flashpoint city of Deir Ezzor, protesters and an activist said, hours after the government vowed to hold \"free\" elections by the year\'s end.
Tanks entered several areas of Deir Ezzor, the largest city in Syria\'s east with more than half a million people, and shelling was reported from at least three suburbs, said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman.
About 250 tanks and armoured cars were involved in the offensive, Abdel Rahman said, adding: "Shelling has been heard in several areas."
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, which has been organising democracy protests on the ground, said the army had entered nine areas in the city, which was rocked by "very strong explosions."
Abdel Rahim said earlier that hundreds of tanks and armoured cars had been deployed in Deir Ezzor and around Homs in central Syria. He said several people had fled Deir Ezzor, expecting an assault.
The Syrian government has sought to crush the democracy movement with brutal force, killing around 1,650 civilians and arresting thousands of dissenters, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
The assault on Deir Ezzor came after UN leader Ban Ki-moon told Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who had been refusing to take his calls, to immediately end the military campaign.
"In a phone conversation with President Assad of Syria today, the secretary general expressed his strong concern and that of the international community at the mounting violence and death toll in Syria over the past days," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said late Saturday.
Ban "reflected to the Syrian president the clear message sent by the Security Council and urged the president to stop the use of military force against civilians immediately," Nesirky said.
Ban\'s call followed a pledge by the US, French and German leaders to consider new steps to punish Syria after security forces killed more than 30 people on the first Friday of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting.
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Saturday that elections to a new parliament would be held by the end of 2011, as he met with foreign ambassadors posted to Damascus.
"Syria will hold free and transparent elections that will give birth to a parliament representing the aspirations of the Syrian people," Muallem said, quoted by state news agency SANA.
"The general elections will be held before the end of the year."
Muallem stressed "the commitment of the Syrian leadership to the continued reform process and implementation of measures announced by President Assad."
The embattled president issued a decree on Thursday allowing opposition political parties.
In April, he ordered an end to five decades of draconian emergency rule and abolished the feared state security courts, while in June he said talks could lead to a new constitution and even end his Baath party\'s rule.
But the concessions have been largely dismissed by the opposition as too late and a ploy to appease protesters.
Elsewhere on Saturday, security forces arrested prominent opposition figure and former political prisoner Walid al-Bunni and his two sons, said Abdel Rahman.
In 2000, Bunni was one of the prime movers of the short-lived "Damascus Spring" amid hopes for reform after Bashar al-Assad became president following the death of his father Hafez.
The Syrian protesters have been calling for greater freedoms since mid-March, inspired by Arab uprisings that ousted the autocratic leaders of Tunisia and Egypt at the start of the year.
Assad\'s regime has become increasingly isolated over the brutal response by his security forces, with allies like Turkey and Russia calling for an end to the bloody crackdown.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke forcefully about the situation this week, calling on Assad to "carry out urgent reforms," warning otherwise "a sad fate awaits him and in the end we will have to take some decisions."
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday that developments in Syria were "unacceptable."
"Operations with heavy arms and tanks in densely populated residential areas like Hama are not legitimate at all," he was quoted by Anatolia news agency as saying.
The oil-rich Arab monarchies of the Gulf on Saturday turned up the heat on Damascus, with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council calling in a statement for an "immediate end to violence... and bloodshed."
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