3 Killed in Syria as Troops Raid Daraa Villages
Syrian security forces reportedly killed three more civilians on Sunday as troops raided villages in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the pro-democracy protests.
Activists had called for fresh protests on Sunday under the slogan: "It's your turn" -- a reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- hoping to force him out of power in the way Libyans ended the rule of Moammar Gadhafi.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a funeral for two civilians shot dead at dawn quickly turned into an anti-regime rally in the flashpoint province of Hama.
Angry mourners in the Hama village of Al-Madiq "demanded the fall of the regime," the Britain-based group said in a statement received by Agence France Presse.
Hama's history is steeped in blood. An estimated 20,000 people were killed there in 1982 when the army put down an Islamist revolt against the rule of Assad's late father, Hafez al-Assad.
A third civilian was killed when security forces manning a checkpoint in Mayadeen near the eastern city of Deir al-Zour opened fire, and two others were seriously wounded, the Observatory said.
Also on Sunday, troops backed by security forces raided the villages of Dael and Ibtaa in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the pro-democracy protests, to end a strike by residents.
"The military forces removed barricades set up by the residents in Dael and Ibraa," the Observatory said, adding that the strike had been launched four days earlier.
The pro-democracy activists who called for more anti-regime demonstrations on Sunday compared Assad him to Libya's Gadhafi, who was killed Thursday.
"It's your turn. We do the same with criminals," said a message posted on the Facebook page of the Syrian Revolution 2011 under pictures of Assad and Gadhafi.
Source: Agence France Presse
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