Syrian troops accused of opening fire on protesters

SYRIAN troops in armoured vehicles and tanks yesterday stormed the southern town of Daraa and opened fire, witnesses said.

After the latest crackdown on a five-week uprising against President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime, activists on social media posted footage of what they said were troops firing throughout Daraa. The sound of heavy gunfire punctuates the footage.

Daraa has become an epicentre of the protest movement which kicked off in the town more than a month ago after authorities arrested a group of teenagers who scrawled anti-regime graffiti on a wall.

Since then, more than 300 people have been killed across the country as the anti-government demonstrations have swelled.

There was no immediate word on casualties, and telephone links to Daraa appeared to have been cut off.

The video could not be independently verified and all witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted access to trouble spots since the uprising began, making it nearly impossible to get independent assessments of the situation on the ground.

Witnesses also said Syrian security forces had opened fire in the suburbs of Damascus yesterday.

More than 120 people have been killed in Syria since Friday, and the rising level of violence brought calls from the watchdog group Human Rights Watch for a UN inquiry.

Syrian security forces have detained dozens of opposition activists since Saturday as authorities turned to pinpoint raids to quell the revolt.

The strategy, described by a rights activist, appears to be aimed at rattling the opposition’s leadership and showing that the state’s ability to conduct sweeping arrests has not changed despite the abolition of near 50-year-old emergency laws last week.

The raids were concentrated around the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs, a hotbed of demonstrations against Assad’s authoritarian rule, said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria.

“These people are not being arrested in a legal way. They are being kidnapped,” Qurabi said, claiming the plainclothes security agents did not have formal arrest warrants.

Qurabi did not have full figures for those detained, but said at least 20 people were arrested in Homs.

A resident in the Damascus suburb of Douma said at least five people were taken into custody and authorities cut internet and telephone lines.

Assad has blamed most of the unrest on a foreign conspiracy and armed thugs trying to sow sectarian strife. The state-run news agency SANA said 286 police officers have been wounded since the uprising began.

But possible cracks could be emerging from within. Two members stepped down from the provincial council in the southern region of Daraa, which has the highest death toll in the country. The resignations came a day after two lawmakers and a religious leader from Daraa also turned their backs on Assad in disgust over the killings.