Syrian forces have launched new attacks on residential areas known to be flashpoints for the ongoing protests against President Bashar al-Assad. Witnesses say Syrian tanks shelled neighborhoods in the town of Homs after residents protested earlier government attacks that killed three people. The Syrian military is reportedly conducting house-to-house raids searching for people whose names appear on a government list. Human rights activists say communication lines have been cut, and checkpoints have been used to seal off communities. Speaking to the New York Times, Rami Makhlouf, a powerful cousin of Assad’s and a wealthy tycoon in Syria, vowed to crush the protests, saying, “We call it a fight until the end… They should know when we suffer, we will not suffer alone.” More than 700 people are believed to have been killed, and some 9,000 arrested, in the Assad regime’s crackdown.