Teacher:In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: At least 500 pro-democracy activists arrested, rights group says, after authorities deployed troops to quell protests. 
  
 Syrian security forces have arrested at least 500 pro-democracy activists, a rights group said, as the government continues a violent crackdown on anti-government protests across the country. The arrests followed the deployment of Syrian troops backed by tanks and heavy armour on the streets of two southern towns, the Syrian rights organisation Sawasiah said on Tuesday. The group said it had received reports that at least 20 people were killed in the city of Deraa in the aftermath of the raid by troops loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Monday. But communications have been cut in the city, making it difficult to confirm the information. "Witnesses managed to tell us that at least 20 civilians have been killed in Deraa, but we do not have their names and we cannot verify," a Sawasiah official told the Reuters news agency. The group said that two more civilians were confirmed dead after government forces entered Douma, a suburb of the capital, Damascus. At least 500 people were arrested elsewhere in the country, it said. Deaths and arrests Gunfire continued to reverberate across the city of Deraa on Tuesday, residents said, a day after thousands of soldiers swept into the city, with tanks taking up positions in the town centre and snipers deploying on rooftops, witnesses said. 
  
  
  
 "We've been listening to live ammunition. Some snipers are working as well, but we don't know from where," a resident of Deraa told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. "The snipers are on all the roofs. I'm now on my stomach, on the ground - I am really in a panicked situation. The city is quite in danger." Witnesses said soldiers began opening fire on civilians indiscriminately after arriving in Deraa, sparking panic in the streets. However, the government insists the army was invited in to rid the town of gunmen. Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Damascus, said the government has reiterated that it is there to protect residents. 
  
 A Deraa resident describes to Al Jazeera a desperate situation on the ground in the restive southern city "What we are hearing from activists in Damascus is fear and concern that what the government is trying to do is crush the protests to create fear among people to stay at home. "Then [the government will] come up with its own plan of reforms, but people won't be able to stand up and defy these reforms. That is how the government wants to move forward." She said the troop deployment was an "unprecedented" offensive against the wave of dissent that has swept the country since the uprising began on March 15. Up until now, she said, security forces had cracked down in reaction to protests. But the flood of troops into Douma and Deraa came in the absence of any demonstrations. 
  
  
  
 "We're seeing a different tactic, with security forces sweeping the towns," she said, noting reports of house-to-house searches, arrests and random shooting coming from both towns. 
  
  
  
 Also for the first time, the military has become directly involved in quelling the uprising, much to the disappointment of opposition activists. "They were hoping the army would not get involved," our correspondent said. "They feel this is only the beginning of a very serious crackdown." However, one activist told Al Jazeera that some army officers have defected to fight alongside the people of Deraa against the government. Two members stepped down from the provincial council in Deraa. The resignations came a day after two legislators and a religious leader from Deraa broke with the government in disgust over the killings. 
  
  
  
 Protesters gunned down 
  
  
  
 Meanwhile, in the coastal town of Jableh, where several protesters were gunned down on Sunday, witnesses said security forces in camouflage uniforms - some with their faces covered - and masked armed men dressed in black were roaming the town's streets. 
  
  
  
 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Syrian rights group, said on Monday that at least 13 people had been killed in Jableh since Sunday's crackdown began. The country has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted access to trouble spots since the uprising began, making it nearly impossible to get independent assessments. Syria has also closed all border crossings on its southern frontier with Jordan as the crackdown intensifies, a security official told Al Jazeera. Syrian intellectuals have expressed their outrage over the violence, with a declaration on Monday signed by 102 writers and exiles from all the country's main sects. "We condemn the violent, oppressive practices of the Syrian regime against the protesters and mourn the martyrs of the uprising," they said. President Assad is also coming under increased foreign pressure to stop the deadly crackdown. France, Britain, Germany and Portugal have all urged the UN Security Council to condemn the government's violent action against demonstrators, and the United States is considering imposing new sanctions. ||||| With tanks now patrolling the streets of a restive Syrian city, the Obama administration is preparing to take its first concrete steps against President Bashar Assad and his top lieutenants — the imposition of sanctions for an increasingly bloody crackdown on demonstrators. 
  
 The regime in Damascus escalated the violence Monday, ordering army tanks and troops into action against protesters in the southern city of Dara. The move followed a tumultuous weekend in which Syrian security forces gunned down an estimated 120 pro-democracy protesters. More than 300 people have died since the uprising erupted five weeks ago. 
  
 Obama administration officials said they are readying orders that would freeze U.S. assets of senior Syrian officials and deny them permission to travel in the United States. 
  
 U.S. sanctions are unlikely to produce a dramatic effect because Syrian officials apparently own few U.S. assets. But the move signaled a notable shift by the Obama administration, which has worked hard to build better relations with Damascus, a regime it considers a strategic key for security in the Middle East. 
  
 European officials said they also are considering steps against Assad's regime. Syrian officials maintain far larger investments in Europe than in the U.S., so economic sanctions or travel bans there would have a more direct effect. 
  
 The Obama administration hopes U.S. sanctions will help build pressure on its European allies, especially France and Britain, to follow suit. Officials in Washington have consulted closely with counterparts in London and Paris on how best to persuade Assad to show restraint. 
  
 Moves by British and French officials against Syria could be particularly important. France, the former colonial power, retains strong cultural and economic relations with Damascus. Assad lived for a number of years in Britain and may have financial assets there. 
  
 David Schenker, a former Middle East advisor at the Pentagon, said steps to isolate Syria, especially by European countries, would sting. 
  
 Even though he took over from his father a decade ago and has maintained Syria's authoritarian system, Assad has cherished the idea that he retains "an international legitimacy and acceptability," said Schenker, now an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a nonpartisan think tank. 
  
 In Syria, heavy-caliber gunfire crackled at dawn Monday as tanks rolled into Dara, a hot spot in the uprising. Amateur videos posted online appeared to show bodies in the streets as protesters came under fire from the tanks' gunners and the snipers on nearby roofs. 
  
 One report by activists said more than 25 people were killed "but no one could get close to them because of the brutal shooting." The activists said that a military force of between 4,000 and 5,000 men marched into Dara along with up to a dozen tanks. 
  
 Several military officers in Dara province told The Times that they had orders to shoot any protester, adding that many soldiers were afraid to resist and that failing to carry out orders was tantamount to a death sentence. 
  
 "We have orders to open fire," said one of the officers, speaking on condition of anonymity because of concerns for his safety. "We are afraid to carry them out because there will be more killing. But if we don't, someone will kill us." 
  
 Syrian activists in touch with witnesses in Dara reported that at least five military officers, including two with the rank of captain, and nine soldiers refused to carry out orders. 
  
 In one video posted online, protesters are seen throwing a rock at an oncoming tank and milling about nearby, as if they were daring soldiers to open fire on them. 
  
 It was impossible to confirm reports from Dara because the city was effectively cut off before the army launched its raid. Syrian authorities cut phone service, disconnected electrical power and blocked roads to the farming hub. Most foreign journalists have been barred from the country. 
  
 State media in Jordan reported that Syria also had sealed the border near Dara, where the arrest and alleged torture of a group of teenagers accused of writing political graffiti sparked the unrest now gripping the country. 
  
 The United Nations' human rights chief, Navi Pillay, demanded a halt to the use of excessive force. "The killings must stop immediately," she said in a news release. 
  
 The regime's ratcheting up of pressure was not limited to Dara. At least 13 people had been killed since Sunday in the coastal city of Jableh, activists said. Scores of people were reported arrested in the Damascus suburb of Duma. Gunfire was reported in Moadamyeh, another suburb. |||||
Student:
With the bloodshed mounting in the streets of Daraa, the Obama administration is preparing sanctions against Syria, including freezing the assets of top Syrian officials, the LA Times reports. That may not have a ton of impact, since Syrian officials don’t own all that many US assets to begin with, but it marks the first concrete action against a regime the administration had previously hoped to improve relations with. The administration’s hoping to pressure its European allies into following suit, since Damascus is more heavily invested there. Dozens of tanks are now stationed in Daraa, and several military officials say they’ve been ordered to kill any protesters they see. “We have orders to open fire,” said one officer. “We are afraid to carry them out because there will be more killing. But if we don’t, someone will kill us.” Activists say more than 25 were killed yesterday. Another rights group tells al-Jazeera that security forces have arrested some 500 pro-democracy activists.