19 reported dead in new Syria clashes

At least 19 people have died as hundreds of thousands of Syrians poured into the streets in the largest protests in months, activists said.

Despite the presence of Arab observers, security forces opened fire on protesters, the activists said.

Rami Abdul-Raham, who heads the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the crowds were largest today in Idlib and Hama provinces, with 250,000 people each.

Other massive rallies were held in Daraa province and the Damascus suburb of Douma.

The continuing violence in Syria, and new questions about the human rights record of the head of the Arab League monitors, are reinforcing the opposition’s view that Syria’s limited co-operation with the observers is nothing more than a ploy by President Bashar Assad’s regime to buy time and forestall more international condemnation and sanctions.

There is broad concern about whether Arab League member states, with some of the world’s poorest human rights records, were fit for the mission to monitor compliance with a plan to end to the crackdown on political opponents by security forces.

The United Nations says some 5,000 people have been killed in the government campaign since March.

One of Assad’s few allies, Russia, voiced its approval of the observer mission so far, saying the situation was “reassuring”.

At the same time, a group of dissident soldiers who joined the opposition announced it has halted attacks on regime troops since the observers arrived in a bid to avoid fuelling government claims that it is facing armed “terrorists” rather than peaceful protesters.

Despite scepticism over the Arab League mission, it has energised the protest movement, with tens of thousands turning out this week in cities and neighbourhoods where the observers are expected to visit.

The huge rallies have been met by lethal gunfire from security forces, apparently worried about multiple mass sit-ins modelled after Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

In general, activists say, security forces have launched attacks when observers were not present. But there have been some reports of firing on protesters while the monitors were close by.

The Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist coalition, said at least 130 people, including six children, have been killed in Syria since the Arab observers began their one-month mission on Tuesday.

The nearly 100 Arab League monitors are the first Syria has allowed in during the uprising, which began in March. They are supposed to ensure the regime complies with terms of the League plan to end President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on dissent.

The plan, which Syria agreed to on December 19, demands that the government remove its security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with the opposition and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country. It also calls for the release of all political prisoners.

Pro-Assad groups turned out for rallies in Damascus and several other cities, waving portraits of the president, in an apparent bid to show the regime has public support during the observer visit.

Today, activists said security forces fired on protesters in the southern province of Daraa, Hama province in central Syria and elsewhere. In the central city of Homs, six people who were reported missing on Thursday were confirmed dead.

Another four were reported killed in the town of Talkalakh, near the border with Lebanon, in an ambush by government troops.

In total, 19 were reported killed today.