'Child among seven killed' by Syrian forces in protests

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

Thousands took to the streets in a weekly ritual of defiance and demands for President Bashar Assad to quit.

Activists Said at least seven people, including a child, were killed in Damascus and elsewhere.

Four were killed in Barzeh, a Damascus district three miles (five kms) from the city centre, said Syria-based human rights activist Mustafa Osso. He said they were killed by security forces’ guns.

But Syrian state television said gunmen, otherwise unidentified, had opened fire on security personnel and civilians, killing three civilians and wounding several security force members.

The other deaths occurred in al-Kasweh, a suburb of the capital, Damascus, and in the central city of Homs, said Omar Idilbi of the Local Co-ordination Committees, which track the Syrian protests.

Protests in several other provinces also came under fire but it was not immediately clear whether there were casualties, Idilbi said.

The committees said a 12-year-old boy, Rateb al-Orabi, was killed when security forces fired on protesters in the Shammas neighbourhood in Homs. The reports could not be independently verified.

“Our revolution is strong! Assad has lost legitimacy!” protesters chanted in the Damascus suburb of Zabadani, according to video posted on YouTube.

The military crackdown has failed to silence a pro-democracy movement that has now lasted more than 100 days. The Syrian opposition says 1,400 people have been killed in the continuing government crackdown.

In northern Syria, activists said at least 15,000 people held a protest on the highway linking the country’s two main cities, Damascus and Aleppo. Thousands marched in Amouda and Qamishli in the northeast and in other provinces, Osso said.

Dissidents reported a strong security presence in many locations. In Homs, all roads leading to the city centre were reported blocked.

An eyewitness in Homs said protests took place in every city district today. He said hundreds of security personnel had been brought in by bus since early morning and encircled the city’s centre.

The witness said security forces fired smoke grenades in the Jouret al-Shiyeh district to disperse protesters. He said pro-government thugs converged on Homs neighbourhoods from neighbouring villages and were “provoking” protesters, who began blocking roads with rocks to keep them back.

In the central city of Hama, activists said a massive protest took place in the city’s main Assi square. Online footage showed huge numbers of people gathered, many waving Syrian flags and crying for the regime’s downfall.

The video and other reports from inside Syria could not be independently verified, since the government has banned all but a few foreign journalists and restricted local media’s reporting.

The Syrian regime blames foreign conspirators and thugs for the unrest, but the protesters deny any foreign influence in their movement.

In Brussels, the EU said it had expanded its anti-Syrian sanctions list, targeting seven more individuals and four companies, bringing to 34 the number of people and entities faced with an asset freeze and travel ban, including Assad.