BEIRUT, Lebanon — A day after one of the Syrian government’s bloodiest assaults on the four-month-old uprising, security forces attacked the central city at the heart of the protests again on Monday, killing at least eight people, as demonstrations erupted elsewhere in Syria in support of the besieged city, activists and residents said.

The second day of assaults on the city, Hama, signaled the intention of the government of President Bashar al-Assad to crush the uprising by force. The assaults stirred international condemnations and raised more questions over his government’s strategy in dealing with an uprising that appears to gain only more momentum as the violence builds.

“What did they achieve from the raids?” asked a doctor from Hama who gave his name as Abu Abdo and who was recently released from detention for participating in the protests. “Nothing. The army is still at the city’s outskirts. It was an operation to kill as many people as possible to prevent the planned demonstrations.”

The scale of Monday’s violence paled before the ferocity of Sunday’s attack, in which at least 85 people died, 53 of them in Hama alone. But as night fell, residents in Hama reported that heavy firing in nearly every neighborhood reverberated across the city. There was no immediate word on casualties, but the attack appeared aimed at keeping people off the streets after evening prayers during Ramadan.