34 Syrians dead in restive city after troops fire

Lebanese riot police offi­cers stand guard in front of a mosque after sup­port­ers from Islamic group protest­ing against the Syr­ian regime entered the mosque in down­town Beirut, Lebanon, Fri­day. (ASSOCIATED PRESS | HUSSEIN MALLA)

BASSEM MROUE

Asso­ci­ated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Syr­ian secu­rity forces opened fire dur­ing one of the largest anti-government protests so far in the 10-week upris­ing, and activists said at least 34 peo­ple were killed Fri­day in a city where thou­sands died in a failed 1982 revolt against the regime.

Pres­i­dent Bashar Assad’s forces renewed their assault on towns seen as key to the demon­stra­tions call­ing for an end to his family’s 40-year rule. The regime also cut Inter­net ser­vice across most of the coun­try, a poten­tially dire blow for a move­ment that moti­vates peo­ple with graphic YouTube videos of the crack­down and loosely orga­nizes protests on Face­book pages.

The Inter­net shut­down, if it con­tin­ues, could also ham­per the movement’s abil­ity to reach the world out­side Syria, where the gov­ern­ment has severely restricted the media and expelled for­eign reporters, mak­ing it nearly impos­si­ble to inde­pen­dently ver­ify what is hap­pen­ing there. Still many activists found alter­nate ways to log on and upload videos, such as satel­lite connections.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, direc­tor of the Syr­ian Obser­va­tory for Human Rights, said tens of thou­sands of peo­ple were protest­ing in Hama when secu­rity forces opened fire. He said the Hama protest was among the largest yet in the upris­ing that began in mid-March.

Friday’s protests appeared to be the biggest of the 10-week upris­ing, with peo­ple gath­er­ing in larger num­bers in cities and towns that before had less par­tic­i­pa­tion. Pro­test­ers also gath­ered in sev­eral Dam­as­cus sub­urbs, as well as the capital’s cen­tral Midan neigh­bor­hood, which has seen demon­stra­tions in recent weeks.

Abdul-Rahman said secu­rity forces killed one per­son in the vil­lage of Has in the north­ern province of Idlib. Another rights activist, Mustafa Osso said secu­rity forces shot dead three pro­test­ers in the north­east­ern city of Deir el-Zour. State-run TV said five police­men were wounded there but did not say how.

“It is a real mas­sacre. It is ter­ror­ism by itself and they want the peo­ple to stay silent,” said an activist in Hama. The activist, who like many involved in the protests requested anonymity to avoid reprisals, said hos­pi­tals were call­ing on peo­ple to donate blood.

Syria’s state-run TV said three “sabo­teurs” were killed when police tried to stop them from set­ting a gov­ern­ment build­ing on fire in Hama. The Syr­ian gov­ern­ment blames armed gangs and reli­gious extrem­ists for the violence.

In 1982, Assad’s father and pre­de­ces­sor Hafez Assad, crushed a Sunni upris­ing by shelling Hama, killing 10,000 to 25,000 peo­ple, accord­ing to Amnesty Inter­na­tional estimates.

As the Fri­day Mus­lim prayers ended, wor­ship­pers left the mosques and marched in cities, towns and vil­lages. Syr­ian secu­rity forces dis­persed some, mostly using batons, tear gas and water can­nons and fired live ammu­ni­tion in at least two loca­tions in south­ern and north­east­ern towns.

Rights groups say more than 1,100 peo­ple have been killed since the revolt against Assad erupted in mid-March.

An eye­wit­ness in Hama reached by The Asso­ci­ated Press said there were around 150,000 demon­stra­tors, an unprece­dented num­ber if con­firmed. He described a chaotic scene, with secu­rity forces fir­ing tear gas and live ammu­ni­tion, and snipers shoot­ing from the rooftops as peo­ple fled.

“There are many killed and wounded peo­ple, the hos­pi­tal is full,” he said. “I fled the area but I can still hear spo­radic gunfire.”

Syr­ian troops also pounded the cen­tral town of Ras­tan with artillery and gun­fire for a sev­enth day, killing at least two peo­ple. The Local Coor­di­na­tion Com­mit­tees, which helps orga­nize and doc­u­ment Syria’s protests, says troops also opened fire on res­i­dents flee­ing the town.

Friday’s deaths bring the toll in Ras­tan and nearby Tal­biseh to 74 killed since last Saturday.

The oppo­si­tion had called for Friday’s nation­wide ral­lies to com­mem­o­rate the nearly 30 chil­dren killed by Assad’s regime dur­ing the uprising.

In the south­ern city of Daraa, where the upris­ing began 10 weeks ago, scores of peo­ple ral­lied in the city’s old quar­ter, chant­ing “No dia­logue with the killers of chil­dren,” an activist said.

The pro­test­ers were refer­ring to a decree by Assad to set up a com­mit­tee tasked with lead­ing a national dialogue.

The regime also released hun­dreds of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers this week after Assad issued a par­don. The Syr­ian Obser­va­tory for Human Rights said lead­ing Kur­dish politi­cian Mashaal Tammo and Muhan­nad al-Hassani, who heads the Syr­ian Orga­ni­za­tion for Human Rights, were released Thursday.

A Syr­ian activist said author­i­ties cut Inter­net ser­vice in sev­eral parts of the coun­try, appar­ently to pre­vent activists from upload­ing footage of the protests and the gov­ern­ment crack­down and from orga­niz­ing new resis­tance. In Dam­as­cus, sev­eral peo­ple con­tacted over the phone said the Inter­net was down.

Renesys, a trusted U.S. firm that spe­cial­izes in keep­ing tabs on Inter­net con­nec­tiv­ity, con­firmed the Syr­ian out­age and said two-thirds of all Syr­ian net­works were unavailable.

Video sur­faced ear­lier this week on YouTube, Face­book and web­sites of Hamza al-Khatib, a 13-year-old boy whose tor­tured and muti­lated body was returned to his fam­ily weeks after he dis­ap­peared dur­ing the protests.

The boy has since become a sym­bol to Syria’s upris­ing and many peo­ple car­ried his posters dur­ing anti-regime ral­lies this week.

Posted by AP News on Jun 3 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.