7 die in clashes with Syrian security forces

SYRIAN security forces shot dead seven people during clashes in two cities between President Bashar al-Assad’s loyalists and protesters demanding his removal, an activist said.

The violence followed rallies organised by authorities in several cities in support of Assad, whose 11-year rule has been challenged by a three-month popular uprising, prompting him to promise reforms last Monday, which were dismissed by protesters and world leaders as inadequate.

Activists said people were killed when army and security forces intervened on the side of Assad’s supporters in the city of Homs and the town of Mayadeen in the tribal Deir al-Zor province, 40km east of the provincial capital, near the border with Iraq’s Sunni heartland.

Ammar Qurabi, head of the Syrian National Organisation for Human Rights, said Assad loyalists, known as shabbiha, shot at protesters in Homs, Hama and Mayadeen, killing at least seven civilians and wounding 10.

“It is difficult to say who started first, but the army’s armoured personnel carriers drove through the (anti-Assad) demonstration firing at people. One is confirmed killed but seven more people suffered serious wounds,” a resident of Mayadeen said.

Two residents in Homs said security forces fired at protesters staging a demonstration to counter a pro-Assad rally backed by secret police and “shabbiha”.

Witnesses in Deraa said security forces opened fire to disperse several thousand protesters in the city’s old quarter who took to the streets in reaction to a pro-government rally in the Mahatta area which they said employees and army forces in civilian clothes had been ordered to attend.

Syria has barred most international journalists, making it difficult to verify accounts from officials.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Syria had agreed to give the humanitarian agency greater access to civilians and areas caught up in the conflict.

State television showed tens of thousands of people in central Damascus waving flags and pictures of Assad who announced an amnesty for people who committed crimes up until Monday, the day of his speech. It was the second amnesty to be announced in three weeks.

After the first, authorities freed hundreds of political prisoners but rights groups say thousands still languish in jail and that hundreds more have since been arrested in an escalating crackdown they say has killed 1,300 civilians in three months.

Authorities say more than 200 police and security forces have been killed by armed gangs.

Activists said that public workers were required to take part in the pro-Assad rallies under threat of dismissal from their jobs, along with the security police and their families.