At Least 6 Dead as Tens of Thousands Flood Syria Streets
Security sources killed six people when they opened fire on demonstrations across Syria on the last Friday of Ramadan, as tens of thousands of protesters flooded the country’s streets vowing to bring down President Bashar al-Assad’s regime despite deadly crackdowns.
Protesters took to the streets in response to calls by The Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook group which urged rallies under the banner of "Friday of patience and determination."
"We will not rest until the fall of the regime," said the message.
Syrian forces killed three protesters in the eastern protest hub of Deir al-Zour, one in the Damascus neighborhood of al-Qaboun, one in the Idlib province town of Maarat al-Numan and another in the southern town of Nawa, the Facebook group reported.
The group identified the victims as Merhi Hassan al-Hammoud, Odai al-Bahloul, Bassel Mohammed Najib al-Abdullah, Jadou Abu al-Sill, Ali Ramadan and Nasr al-Bedewi.
Thousands of people demonstrated in the flashpoint central city of Homs, emerging in several neighborhoods of the industrial hub, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The protesters chanted: "Bashar we don't love you, even if you turn night into day," "We are men of freedom."
Security forces broke up a demonstration in Deir al-Zour, one of the hubs of the protest movement that was launched in mid-March, the rights group said.
Protests also took place in al-Bukamal, a town on the border with Iraq, in the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Kiswah, in Hirak in the south and in the mostly Kurdish-populated city of Qamishli in the northeast, said Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees group.
The LCC has people on the ground across Syria and is involved in organizing protests against the Assad regime.
For its part, The Syrian Revolution 2011 group reported demonstrations in the Damascus flashpoint neighborhoods of al-Midan and al-Qadam.
Abdul Karim Rihawi, the head of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights who had been jailed earlier this month, said thousands protested in the Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria's second city, in Damascus and in Idlib, in the northwest.
Rights activists said at least 25 people were shot and wounded nationwide, including five people in Deir al-Zour, six in al-Qusair near Homs and four in the city itself, among them a father and his four-year-old daughter. People were also injured in Damascus suburbs.
The official SANA news agency said armed masked men attacked security forces in Deir al-Zour wounding three but were later killed in an exchange of fire.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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