34 Syrian Protesters Shot Dead by Security Forces in Hamah, Protests Continue All Over the Country

Syrian forces 'shot dead 34 protesters in Hama'

Published yesterday (updated) 03/06/2011 21:49

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) --

Syrian security forces shot dead at least 34 people while dispersing tens of thousands of demonstrators in the central city of Hama on Friday, activists said, as anti-regime protests spread to Damascus.

Activists in the city told AFP by telephone in Nicosia that dozens of other people were wounded.

Security forces unleashed "intense gunfire" against a crowd of more than 50,000 people in Hamah, according to Rami Abdul Rahman who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It was the largest demonstration in Hama since the mid-March outbreak of an uprising against the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, he said.

The official SANA news agency, however, reported "hundreds of people gathered after Friday prayers in Hama chanting diverse slogans" but that security forces and police had stayed away.

In 1982, Hamah was the scene of a brutal crackdown that left an estimated 20,000 people dead when the Muslim Brotherhood rose up against the late Hafez Al-Assad, father of current President Bashar Al-Assad.

Thousands of demonstrators on Friday also rallied in and around Damascus, which so far has been largely spared the protests rocking Syria for more than 10 weeks, another rights activist said.

About 2,000 people marched in Rukn Al-Din suburb and police armed with batons beat demonstrators in the southern Damascus district of Midan in a bid to break up a rally, said Abdul Karim Rihawi of the Syrian League for Human Rights.

Thousands more joined rallies calling for the end of Assad's regime across Damascus province, including in Jdaidet Artuz, Daraya and Zamalka.

"All the measures taken by the authorities to calm the street have failed," Rihawi said in apparent reference to Assad's decision on Wednesday to launch a "national dialogue" and decree an amnesty for hundreds of political prisoners.

Near the southern protest hub of Daraa, security forces opened fire to disperse a crowd in Jassem, a rights activist told AFP, as protesters also gathered in nearby Dal and in Kurdish towns of northern Syria.

Overnight, in several cities including Aleppo in the north and Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria residents took to rooftops to chant "God is Greatest," a slogan taken up by the opposition, said Abdul Rahman.

A government crackdown which focused earlier this week on the flashpoint Homs region left at least 75 civilians and military personnel dead since Sunday, according to the rights group chief.

Syrian state television on Friday broadcast the accounts of three suspected members of an "an armed criminal group" who said they had "killed demonstrators and security agents" in Homs.

Al-Baath newspaper, viewed as the mouthpiece of the Baath party which has ruled Syria since 1963, quoted the men as saying they had "cut roads" and "burnt public buildings" in exchange for money and guns.

Residents, meanwhile, said Internet lines were cut in Damascus and the coastal city of Latakia on Friday, in a repeat of a suspension of services at the start of April.

Syrian activists called the latest protests over the dozens of children killed in anti-government protests such as 13-year-old Hamza Al-Khatib whom activists say was tortured to death, a charge denied by the authorities.

"The people want the fall of the regime. Tomorrow, it's 'Children's Friday' of rising up against injustice, like the adults," the activists announced on their Facebook page Syrian Revolution 2011, an engine of the uprising.

The UN children's agency UNICEF says at least 30 children have been shot dead in the revolt against Assad's autocratic rule that erupted in mid-March.

The revolt in Syria was sparked by the arrest and torture of 15 children and adolescents accused of painting anti-regime graffiti in Daraa, which became a flashpoint of the deadly protests.

More than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in a brutal crackdown on almost daily anti-regime demonstrations in Syria since March 15, human rights organizations say.

The government insists the unrest in Syria is the work of "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.

Snubbing government concessions that included the release of some political prisoners and a call for a national dialogue, opposition groups at a meeting in Turkey late Thursday demanded Assad's "immediate resignation."

Dozens feared dead as Syrians continue protests

At least 63 people were shot dead after Friday prayers in the southern city of Hama when security forces fired on demonstrators in the city centre, a Syrian human rights organisation has said.

By News Wires (text)
France 24, 03/06/2011

REUTERS -

Syrian forces killed at least 63 civilians in attacks to crush pro-democracy demonstrations on Friday, the Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah said on Saturday.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets after noon prayers on Friday in defiance of security forces determined to crush a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule.

Sawasiah
said 53 demonstrators were killed in the city of Hama, one in Damascus and two in the northwestern province of Idlib.

Seven people were also killed in the town of Rastan in central Syria, which has been under a military assault and a siege by tanks since Sunday.

It was one of the bloodiest days since the revolt broke out 11 weeks ago.

Security forces and snipers fired at tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city of Hama, where 29 years ago President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, crushed an armed Islamist revolt by killing up to 30,000 people and razing parts of the city to the ground.

Activists said at least 34 people were killed and scores wounded.

"The firing began from rooftops on the demonstrators. I saw scores of people falling in Assi square and the streets and alleyways branching out. Blood was everywhere," a witness who gave his name as Omar told Reuters from Hama.

"It looked to me as if hundreds of people have been injured but I was in a panic and wanted to find cover. Funerals for the martyrs have alrady started," he said.

In the southern city of Deraa, where protests first broke out 11 weeks ago, hundreds defied a military curfew and held protests, chanting "No dialogue with killers", two residents in the city told Reuters. The protest later broke up.

Syrian forces also opened fire on demonstrations in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor and in Damascus' Barzeh district.

"Tens of thousands turned up in Hama and Idlib in the biggest demonstrations since the uprising began. This is a natural reaction to the increased killings and lack of seriousness by the regime for any national reconciliation," said Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

One person was killed in Idlib, he said.

Activists and residents said thousands of people marched in the northwesterm province of Idlib, Kurdish northeast, several Damascus suburbs, the cities of Homs and Hama and the towns of Madaya and Zabadani in the west.

International pressure

The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon demanded an immediate end to the "violent repression" and human rights abuses by Syrian forces.

Rights groups say security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians, provoking international outrage at Assad's ruthless handling of the demonstrators.

Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed groups, backed by Islamists and foreign powers, and say the groups have fired on civilians and security forces alike. Authorities have prevented most international media from operating in Syria, making it impossible to verify accounts of the violence.

Activists say there have been some instances of citizens resisting security forces by using personal weapons, and of security police shooting soldiers for refusing to fire at protesters.

The activist who declined to be named said that before the shooting started protesters burned the Baath Party office in Hama and said it was not clear how the shooting broke out.

Assad has responded to protests by sending tanks to crush demonstrations in certain flashpoints and by making some reformist gestures, such as issuing a general amnesty to political prisoners and launching a national dialogue.

But protesters and opposition figures have dismissed these measures. The cities and towns of Deraa, Tel Kelakh, Banias and Rastan have undergone intense crackdowns by the military.

Western powers have condemned Assad as the unrest spreads and the death toll rises.

The United States, the European Union and Australia have imposed sanctions on Syria, but perhaps because of reluctance to get entangled in another confrontation such as Libya, and wary of provoking more instability in a region still in the midst of an "Arab Spring", their reactions have been less vehement.

Opposition figures meeting in Turkey called on Assad to resign immediately and hand power to the vice president until a council was formed to introduce democracy to the country.

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