Syrian forces killed at least three protesters on Saturday as tens of thousands of people marched again to demand the removal of President Bashar al-Assad on a major religious occasion, activists and residents said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), citing witnesses, said more demonstrations had broken out in Damascus overnight and on Saturday morning than at any time since the pro-democracy uprising erupted in March.
Two of the three were killed as Assad’s forces fired live ammunition to disperse demonstrators streaming from mosques in Qusair and Latakia port after al-Qadr prayers, the night Muslims believe the Prophet received the Koran.
At the al-Rifai mosque in the upscale Damascus Kfar Sousa district, where the main secret police headquarters are located, witnesses said hundreds of security police and militiamen loyal to Assad attacked worshippers who tried to demonstrate as al-Qadr prayers finished around dawn.
“Some of the ‘amn’ [security] went on the roof and began firing from their AK-47s to scare the crowd. Around ten people were wounded with two hit by bullets in the neck and chest,” a cleric who lives in the area told Reuters by phone.
SOHR, headed by dissident Rami Abdelrahman, said Syrian forces fired at a funeral turned protest on Saturday in the town of Kfar Roumeh in the north western Idlib province bordering Turkey, injuring at least ten.
The organisation said another man was killed in raids and house-to-house arrests in the nearby town of Kfar Nubul.
“Besides the killings, another tragedy in Syria is the tens of thousands of people arrested since the beginning of uprising, many of whose whereabouts are unknown,” Abdelrahman told Reuters.
Bloody crackdown
The United Nations said Syrian troops killed at least 2 200 protesters since Assad sent in tanks and troops to crush months of street demonstrations calling for an end to his family’s 41-year rule.
Syrian authorities have blamed armed “terrorist groups” for the bloodshed and say 500 police and army have been killed. They have expelled most independent journalists, making it difficult to verify events on the ground.
The United States and EU have urged Assad to step down but their push at the UN to impose Security Council sanctions on Syria over its crackdown has met resistance from Russia and China, diplomats said.
Russia has a naval base in Syria and is one of its main arms suppliers. One proposed sanction is an arms embargo while other sanctions would freeze the assets of Assad and his associates.
Assad himself would be excluded from a proposed travel ban on his relatives and associates to allow him an escape route.
The proposed UN measures are not as severe as US sanctions in place and a proposed expansion of EU steps against Damascus that would forbid the import of Syrian oil.
The Syrian National Human Rights Organisation (SNHRO), headed by opposition figure Ammar Qurabi, said nearly 100 civilians were killed by security forces in the week to Friday “in another bloody week”.
The uprising has shattered Syria’s economy, hitting investment and the tourism industry, forcing businesses to lay off workers.
Any power shake-up in Syria would have major regional repercussions. Assad, from Syria’s minority Alawite sect, still has alliances with the country’s influential Sunni business class and a loyalist core in the army and security service.
Widespread protest
Since Ramadan began on August 1, tanks have entered the cities of Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by the military, Deir al-Zor and Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.
During a protest overnight in the Damascus suburb of Hajar al-Aswad, home to refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, demonstrators chanted: “The people want the execution of the president”.
Similar demonstrations were reported in other Damascus suburbs such as Douma and Qadam. Protests were also seen in Homs, hometown of Assad’s wife Asma, the ancient desert city of Palmyra, Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by the military and a tank assault this month, and the eastern province of Hasakeh.
A YouTube video showed marchers shouting “death but not humiliation” in the provincial capital of Idlib. They carried the old Syrian green and white flag of the republic before the Baath Party took power in a 1963 coup, ushering in almost five decades of minority Alawite rule.
On Friday, residents of Deir al-Zor said security forces opened fire to disperse scores of protesters, killing two of them on the spot. Another youth was taken to hospital with serious gunshot wounds and died later, a witness said.
Nine other protesters were killed across the country on Friday, the SNHRO said, including in the southern town of Nawa. State television said two gunmen were killed in Deir al-Zor. — Reuters