Arab states join the West in condemning Syria's crackdown

Syria's defence minister was replaced last night by the army chief of staff in the midst of a brutal military crackdown on a five-month-old uprising against president Bashar al-Assad.

State news agency SANA report said General Ali Habib, the country's defence minister since 2009, was removed because of health problems. Mr Assad appointed General Dawoud Rajha as the new defence minister as part of a shake-up of a number of key posts, SANA said.

The army has played a key role in the crackdown on protesters, along with the security services and armed thugs known as shabiha, drawn from Mr Assad's Alawite minority community. The vast majority of Syria's people are Arab Sunni Muslims.

Yesterday, the military renewed its assault on the Sunni city of Deir el-Zour, unleashing artillery fire on the eastern town, a day after at least 42 people were killed there.

The intensifying government crackdown has drawn sharp condemnation from abroad, and Arab nations joined the growing international chorus against Mr Assad's regime yesterday, with Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia pulling out their ambassadors from the country.

The international community has imposed sanctions and demanded an immediate end to the attacks. But in a sign of growing outrage, Syria's Arab neighbours also voiced their concerns about a crackdown that intensified on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Saudi Arabia's king - whose country does not tolerate dissent and which lent its military troops to repress anti-government protests in Bahrain - said he was recalling his ambassador in Damascus for consultations, and demanded "an end to the killing machine and bloodshed".

In a statement, King Abdullah said: "Any sane Arab, Muslim or anyone else knows this has nothing to do with religion, or ethics or morals; spilling the blood of the innocent for any reasons or pretext leads to no path."

Bahrain recalled its ambassador to Syria "for consultation", foreign minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said.

Bahrain has faced the Gulf's largest uprisings since the start of the Arab Spring.

In Deir el-Zour, about 280 miles east of the Syrian capital, Damascus, machine-gun fire and artillery blasts resumed early yesterday, according to the Local Co-ordinating Committees, which help organise the protests and track the uprising.

Deir el-Zour is in an oil-rich but largely impoverished region known for its well-armed clans and tribes whose ties extend across eastern Syrian and into Iraq. At least 42 people were killed on Sunday in a pre-dawn raid, said Abdul-Karim Rihawi, the Damascus-based chief of the Syrian Human Rights League, and Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria.Syrian troops also stormed Maaret al-Numan in the northern province of Idlib at dawn, activists said.

"Forces entered the city from its eastern side and they are preventing the residents from entering or leaving the city," the LCC said in a statement.

More than 300 people have died in the past week. The government crackdown on mostly peaceful, unarmed protesters demanding political reforms and an end to the Assad family's 40-year rule has left more than 1,700 dead since March, according to human rights groups.

Assad's regime disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest.