SYRIAN TROOP REINFORCEMENTS have been sent into the city of Daraa just a day after at least 65 people were killed in yesterday’s crackdown on anti-government protests.

Daraa has been under siege from government forces since Monday, and the city has been without telephones and electricity and water supplies since then, according to local reports.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Daraa for a planned ‘day of rage’ protest against the government yesterday.

Witnesses said that troops fired on people attempting to enter the city in support of the demonstrators, Al Arabiya reports, while prominent lawyerTamer al-Jahamani said the fatal wounds on protesters in Daraa suggested they were the victims of snipers.

Yesterday, there were reports of army units turning on each other over the crackdown on protesters in Daraa.

The latest deaths bring the crackdown’s death toll has risen above 500 since the protests broke out mid-March. The Obama administration has announced financial sanctions against three top Syrian officials and Syria’s intelligence agency which include freezing any assets they hold in US jurisdictions. US citizens are also barred from doing business with them.

President Obama called on the Syrian government to “to respect human rights and to forge a credible path to a future of greater freedom, democracy, opportunity, and justice”.

- Additional reporting by the AP