EU bans investment in Syria's oil sector as crackdown continues

The European Union agreed on Friday to widen the bloc’s sanctions against Syria by banning investment in the country's oil sector following President Bashar Assad's regime brutal crackdown on protesters.

Friday's additional measures also include a ban to deliver bank notes to the Syrian Central Bank and travel and visa bans on more officials linked to the regime. Syria exports some 150,000 barrels of oil per day, with the vast majority going to the European Union. The EU says that Syria earned 3.1 billion ($4.4 billion) by selling oil to the EU in 2010.

Syrian forces killed at least two protesters when they fired live ammunition to disperse pro-democracy protests that broke out across the country after Friday prayers in intensified assaults to crush the six-month uprising, activists said.

Citing reports from the street, they said the killings occurred in the province of Homs, scene of some of the largest protests against President Bashar al-Assad and where troops and tanks are deployed in the provincial capital and in the countryside.

Protesters also came under fire in the tribal region of Deir al-Zor on the border with Iraq, the city of Hama, and in several Damascus suburbs, they said.

The U.N. has estimated that some 2,600 people have already been killed during the suppression of anti-government protests.