Syrian forces shoot 24 dead at major demonstrations
The Local Co-ordination Committees, a group of grassroots activists, said three demonstrators were shot dead in the central city of Homs, three in the northern province of Idlib, two in Damascus suburbs and one in Latakia.
Defying Assad’s military crackdown, demonstrators took to the streets again after Friday prayers across the country, from towns near the western Lebanese border to the desert regions near Iraq in the east.
“Bashar get out of our lives,” read placards carried by thousands of Kurds who marched in the north-eastern city of Amouda.
In the city of Hama, video footage appeared to show tens of thousands of protesters massed in a central square. Witnesses and activists said demonstrators in Hama and in Kurdish eastern areas carried red cards employing a soccer symbol to demand Assad’s “sending off”.
Authorities banned most international media from operating in Syria since the outbreak of the protests in March, making it difficult to verify reports from activists and auth-orities.
State television said gunmen had fired on security forces in Homs and in several other towns, wounding two of them.
In the old Homs district of Bab Sbaa, a witness said several armoured vehicles deployed and soldiers fired at protesters from road blocks set up in main streets in the city of one million.
Another activist in Homs said the death toll could be higher, with troops surrounding a private hospital in Bab Sbaa and several wounded people rushed to another hospital on the outskirts of the city where security forces were not present.
Protesters have taken to the streets for 14 weeks to protest against Assad in unrest which has claimed the lives of about 1,300 civilians, according to rights groups.
Authorities say 500 police and soldiers have been killed by gunmen they also blame for most of the civilian deaths.
Alongside the military crackdown, Assad has promised a national dialogue on political reforms and on Monday gave a rare platform to opposition demands when authorities allowed a conference in Damascus attended by 150 intellectuals.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was “disheartened” by reports of continued violence near the Syrian border with Turkey.
Monday’s meeting in Damascus, she said, was not enough on its own to address demands for reform.
“It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time. They are either going to allow a serious political process that will include peaceful protests to take place throughout Syria and engage in a productive dialogue with members of the opposition and civil society, or they’re going to continue to see increasingly organised resistance.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that tank assaults killed three people overnight in hillside villages of the northern Idlib province near the Turkish border.
About 100 people crossed over into Lebanon early yesterday, witnesses said. Thousands have fled to Lebanon during the three months of unrest, but many have returned and it is unclear how many remain in Lebanon.
The US and European Union have imposed sanctions on Assad and his top officials in response to the violent repression of the protests.
