Explosions are reported to have rocked the besieged Syrian city of Hama, where more than 120 activists were killed this week, while residents said that government forces had seized control of a central square.
Up to 100 tanks have entered the city, CNN said on Wednesday, while Reuters reported that Orontos square in central Hama had been occupied by government forces following heavy bombing of the city.
Details on the fresh attacks are sketchy, however, due in part to a reported crackdown on phone and internet communications.
The Huffington Post UK experienced difficulties contacting activists inside the country through normal channels, and several other media outlets reported similar problems.
“Early this morning people heard the sound of bombs,” said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, to the Associated Press. “Then the phone lines were cut.”
Global activist group Avaaz also reported problems getting through to people in hotspots around the country.
Meanwhile Syrian activists in London claimed on Wednesday that opposition figures are already at work building party political structures that will be ready if President Bashar al-Assad leaves office.
Ausama Monajed, a prominent Syrian dissident living in London, told The Huffington Post UK that despite ongoing pressure from government forces, protesters are prepared for a long battle.
"People got used to the brutality of the regime and had expected it, and they still believe that it will get a lot worse before it gets any better," he said. "The people have adapted their expectations to the inhumane nature of the regime."
Syrian opposition figures are already preparing for a post-Assad era, Monajed claimed, and are even building political parties in secret.
"Syrians have already been planning for the post-Assad era for a while now, and have been preparing for the formation of political parties. In fact, the intellectuals have already formed a few parties secretly, liberal, technocratic, and Marxist parties."
"They want a free market regulated by the interests of all Syrians in a secular country. Most political parties have written up Manifestos with cohesive demands starting with amendments to the constitution to restructuring of Syrian intelligence and security forces."
Monajed added that Western governments and the United Nations should work towards imposing economic sanctions and other measures on government figures.
"Economic pressure could be applied by sanctioning all the Syrian businessmen and companies contributing to suppression of the revolution," he said.
"Confiscation of properties and bank assets would also help. Western governments must also limit the movement of all Syrian ambassadors abroad and investigate their surveillance of Syrian dissidents. More media coverage should be given to Syria through UN conferences and briefs, and finally, the UN needs to liaise with opposition groups and assist them with their activists in Syria."
But on the essential question of whether the government could survive in the long term, Monajed said that the protesters were convinced that it could not.
"It is not a question of 'if' Assad will go," he said. "It is when."