Thousands of Syrian troops backed by tanks stormed the flashpoint town of Daraa yesterday killing at least 25 people, witnesses said, as a leading rights activist accused Damascus of opting for a “military solution” to crush dissent.

Troops also launched assaults on the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Al-Maadamiyeh, witnesses said, as the head of the UN human rights agency slammed what she called the security forces’ disregard for human life.

The United States, which has repeatedly denounced Syria’s repression of the protests, was considering sanctions against Damascus, an official in Washington said.

Amman said Syria yesterday closed its border with Jordan in a statement quickly denied by Syrian customs chief Mustapha Bukai.

Activist Abdullah Abazid said by telephone from Daraa that Syrian forces were pounding the southern town near the border with heavy artillery and that “at least 25 martyrs have fallen”.

“There are still bodies sprawled in the streets,” he said, with the sound of loud explosions and gunfire in the background. A group of activists said in a statement to media that “more than 25 people fell but no one could reach them because of the heavy shelling” and that only seven bodies were retrieved.

They were identified by name and included a father and his two sons, said the statement which accused Syrian troops of firing indiscriminately with anti-aircraft guns.“The commander of the Third Army Corps, Kamal Ayyash, a citizen of Daraa, was arrested because he protested against the killings,” the statement said.

A resident earlier said he witnessed five people killed when their car was raked with fire in Daraa, where Syria’s unprecedented anti-regime protests erupted six weeks ago.

Mr Abazid said Daraa was “like being in a battlefield.”The army seized at least two mosques in the town as well as the cemetery where scores of people killed in anti-regime protests have been buried, activists said.