THE government in Syria cracked down harder this weekend on the growing numbers protesting against Bashar Assad's regime. On Friday April 8th, security forces killed at least 28 people in the cities of Deraa, Douma and Harasta, the highest death toll on a single day so far. Two days later at least four others were shot dead in the coastal city of Banias after reports say the army surrounded the city and let loose the shabiha, a thuggish Alawite smuggling gang backed by the regime that has been responsible for violence elsewhere. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based lobby, said on Tuesday that security forces had prevented demonstrators from reaching medical care by shooting at doctors and arresting people in hospitals.

Protests have not yet spread to Aleppo, Syria's second city, but they have reached the villages around Damascus, the capital, and much of the rest of the country. For the first time since they began, demonstrations have continued beyond Friday. On Monday students at Damascus University held an anti-government rally. The army has encircled Banias and shows no sign of leaving. Further violence has been reported in nearby villages today.

The government has warned protesters that there is "no more room for leniency and tolerance" in its efforts to restore order. Until now, Mr Assad's regime has blamed the violence on outsiders, claiming that the president has ordered his troops not to fire. This recent statement suggests the situation may become even more violent.

Sunday's violence in Banias has complicated an already murky picture. In addition to the four protesters, at least nine soldiers were shot. Members of private militias have been blamed along with the shabiha. Witnesses blame them for shooting at least some of the protesters in Banias. A combination of security forces and the shabiha may also have been responsible for killing the soldiers after some refused to fire on demonstrators.

With Iraq to the east and Lebanon to the west, fears of sectarian strife loom large in Syria. The regime has long sought stability through dividing and exploiting different religious and ethnic groups, a tactic it has used shamelessly in recent weeks. In a speech a fortnight ago, Mr Assad repeatedly used the word "fitna", an Arabic term for discord that often refers to religious dissent. An increasingly creative state media report that sectarian and religious tensions are rising, saying that people have been caught trying to remove female students' headscarves.

Most Syrians are Sunnis but the country has large Shia, Druze and Christian minorities. Discussing these religious divides has long been taboo. But despite rising fears of sectarianism, especially among the Alawites, the chants of "Syrians are one" and evidence of mixed protests suggest that Syria's uprising is not about religion divisions. Even the country's Kurds, who stayed out of the fray for the first two weeks, concerned about the issue being framed as an ethnic issue, are now seeking to build links with protesters as they reject Mr Assad's last-ditch offer of nationality, made last week after almost 50 years.

But as in the other Arab uprisings, economic woes and political repression, not sectarian strife, lie behind the discontent. The biggest divide is between the haves, many of them linked to the regime, and the have-nots. Fewer than ever now believe that Mr Assad will do much to change this. No meaningful reforms have been implemented. People grumble that it took less than a day to amend the constitution to lower the minimum age of the president to allow Mr Assad to take power upon his father's death but lifting a decades-old emergency law is taking weeks.

State television has shown people on the street calling for protesters to be hung in downtown Damascus while at pro-regime rallies people have chanted slogans declaring their willingness to spill blood for Mr Assad. It is hard to see a peaceful way out of this—unless Mr Assad stems the killings and makes some significant reforms, fast.