7 Killed as Syrian Security Forces Disperse Thousands of Demonstrators
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Syrian security forces opened fire Tuesday, killing seven people as they tried to disperse thousands of protesters rallying against the regime on the first day of the three-day Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, activists said.
The activists said security forces fired at protesters in the southern province of Daraa, in the central city of Homs and in the Damascus suburbs following morning prayers marking Eid al-Fitr.
The Local Coordination Committees activist network said six protesters were killed in Daraa and one in Homs. An activist in Daraa confirmed the six deaths in Daraa province, saying four were killed in the village of al-Harra and two others in Inkhil.
The LCC said the deaths in al-Harra included a 13-year-old boy.
Pious Muslims traditionally visit cemeteries to pray for the dead on the first day of the Eid, and children get new clothes, shoes, haircuts and toys for the holiday.
On Tuesday, many in Syria visited graves of loved ones who have been killed in the five-month uprising against President Bashar Assad.
Human rights groups say Assad's forces have killed more than 2,000 civilians since the uprising erupted in March, touched off by the wave of revolutions sweeping the Arab world.
The government crackdown escalated dramatically at the start of Ramadan, a time of introspection and piety characterized by a dawn-to-dusk fast. Muslims typically gather in mosques during the month for special nightly prayers after breaking the fast, and the Assad government used deadly force to prevent such large gatherings from turning into more anti-government protests.
The LCC activist network said Syrians were keeping their Eid celebrations to a minimum this year in solidarity with the Syrians who have died and the families of detainees.
"There will be no happiness while the martyrs' blood is still warm," it said in a statement Tuesday.
The Syrian government has placed severe restrictions on the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify witness accounts.
30 August 2011, 10:53
01
Call things by its name... Stop using the word disperse as if the assad regime is a civilized regime. replace "disperse" by "intimidate", "terrify", "kills", "assasinates"... It'll give you more credibilities
30 August 2011, 14:26
01
To which God is Assad praying? His soldiers are killing innocent civilians and are terrorizing those whose only request is to be what God wants them to be, free!
30 August 2011, 14:44
04
Your final days ya Assad are very near. What comes around goes around.
30 August 2011, 15:48
10
If you keep track of the numbers issued by the retards since the troubles started, there will be no one left in Syria by now. But the idiots count in the millions, and most of them seem to be Lebanese. No wonder they are losers.
30 August 2011, 17:10
01
I wonder which God this man is worshipping? Dracula? Kneeling down in one those very buildings he is destroying with shellfire, next to a man of religion whose peers are threatened and beaten up by the shabibah everyday!
30 August 2011, 19:58
01
Do Alawi pray like this? Or is it a Sunni propoganda PR picture?
30 August 2011, 23:36
10
joumba.Clearly you are a Syrian ou homse kamena if u consider that syrian population is made of 2000.
Btw the more the better,and the more the crisis goes on the more we are enjoying.
Anno i hope it will go for another 25 years and there will be no Syrian left to tell
till then im enjoying the scenery .
Fun Fun Fun .
Believe me plenty of us are with you,they should keep Assad in power to slaughter a bit more of you.
Come on assouda ,get in there
30 August 2011, 23:43
00
I wonder what bashar is praying: He's asking God if he could kills another 3000 people and still go to heaven. I guess then that God gave him an idea about the number of allowed killing....maybe quite a few thousand or a bonus of 1 for everyone killed.
It's so ridiculous and hypocritical of this man bending to pray while his people are being slaughtered by his army. It would have been better if he stayed at home pondering his next killing steps and the numbers that he intends to slaughter within the coming weeks.
Praying in general is a time of musing and self searching. A time when a person asks forgiveness for his sins from God. Its shameful seeing Bashar in the mosque.
I am really disgusted from this all the way through.
