MASKED gunmen dragged Syria’s best-known political cartoonist from his car, beat him severely and broke both his hands as a warning to stop drawing just days after he compared Syria’s president to Muammar Gaddafi, a relative and activists said.

The Syrian army raided cities across the country before dawn today, killing at least 34 people – most of them in the flashpoint city of Hama where a barrage of shelling and gunfire left bodies scattered in the streets, activists and residents said.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded cities around Syria today – in what activists described as the largest outpouring against the regime of President Bashar Assad – and at least 14 people were killed in clashes, activists said.

Six people were reported killed as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities around Syria.

Defying government guns, thousands of Syrian protesters poured down city streets and a main highway today to press demands for President Bashar Assad’s ousting.

At least seven people have been reported shot dead when Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters.

Syrian security forces have opened fire on protesters killing at least two as thousands took to the streets, activists said.

Syria’s embattled president said today he would consider political reforms, but Bashar Assad gave no sign he might step down, the key demand of nationwide protests.

Syrian troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships have taken over a north-western town days after laying siege to it, activists said today.