Lawmaker wants tough Syrian sanctions

WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- Washington should take action to "increase the sting" of sanctions targeting Syria as the human rights situation there worsens, a U.S. lawmaker said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad last month enacted a series of reforms in an effort to quiet growing unrest in his country. Washington said the escalating level of violence in Syria, however, suggested the regime in Damascus isn't serious about those reforms.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement said there were sanctions on the books that could be used to not only pressure Syria over its human rights abuses but also address concerns to U.S. national security.

"It's time to increase the sting of the sanctions already in place against the Syrian regime," she said in a statement.

The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria this week said more than 1,000 people have been arrested in Syria since Monday. Damascus blames much of the violence on "terrorists" and thugs.

Mark Toner, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said the human rights situation in Syria is deteriorating quickly.

"It's our understanding that electricity, communications and other services (have) been cut off now for several days and that the humanitarian situation there is quite grave," he told reporters during a briefing. "These are, quite frankly, barbaric measures and they amount to the collective punishment of innocent civilians."