Syrian authorities have launched fresh attacks on cities across the country in defiance of international criticism.

Activists said tanks had been used to storm into villages near Hama, and two towns on the border with Turkey. There was also machine-gun fire reported in the city of Deir el-Zour.

Meanwhile, young people in the country have told The Huffington Post UK that violent attacks and arrests by government forces are continuing in Damascus and surrounding towns.

"They are arresting people at the checkpoints," a 25-year-old woman from a town outside the country's capital told us on Tuesday.

"We know people who have been hurt and injured," she said, speaking in hushed tones from her home. "They have broken into houses to arrest people in the last week... We are being killed, every single day."

"The campaign against us is getting bigger and bigger."

More than 300 people have been killed in Syria since the start of Ramadan. The latest crackdown began after government forces attacked Hama, which had been largely free of its influence for some weeks.

"The situation has not become better at all. People are very, very confused and they are very, very angry and tired," said our source. "The shops have been closed because they put checkpoints up every few metres. People don't have the ability to get to the shops."

However, protests are continuing "every single day" said our source.

"They want the regime to fall and for Bashar al-Assad to leave," she said.

The protesters expect Assad to leave office eventually, she added, and said that while that could take many months or even up to a year, they expect the protesters to remain patient.

"We want a civil country. We want democracy," she said.

International criticism to the situation in Syria has intensified.

The foreign minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, who until recently had fairly close ties with the Syrian regime, has met with Assad to express his concern.

India's UN Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri has also said that his representatives will join others from Brazil and South Africa to meet Syria's foreign minister and call for an end to the reprisals.