Thousands Protest across Syria Against Regime

Thousands of protesters massed across Syria after weekly Muslim prayers on Friday as a global outcry widened over a deadly crackdown on month-old, anti-regime demonstrations.

Opposition’s mouthpiece Sham News Network reported that several protesters were wounded when “thugs and security forces” opened fire on them in the Latakia neighborhood of Slaibeh.

SNN also reported that security forces opened fire in the Damascus suburb of Jobar on protesters arriving from the capital’s suburbs to stop them from reaching the Abbasid Square.

For its part, Facebook group Syrian Revolution 2011 announced that a protester was killed at the hands of “pro-regime thugs” in Deir al-Zour. It also reported that at least one protester was killed in the Latakia Governorate.

Meanwhile, opposition’s Flash News Network said “two people were reportedly killed in the Damascus neighborhood of Baraza as more than 15 injured protesters were arrested and taken to unknown locations.”

“A large number of protesters have reportedly headed to Damascus’ Umayyad Square to stage an open-ended sit-in,” FNN added.

Human rights activists said scores of people were “arbitrarily detained” in the northern sector of the Damascus neighborhood of Rukn al-Din.

And in the northeastern city of al-Hasakeh seven people were arrested, activists added.

Protesters also took to the streets of the restive city of Daraa as well as other centers in the Kurdish-populated northwest.

Activists said up to 3,000 protesters marched to the center of Daraa and more were on their way to the southern city, where security forces shot dead at least seven people last Friday.

"Between 2,500 and 3,000 people showed up at Al-Saraya area in the center of the city, chanting slogans in favor of freedom and against the hostile regime," said the activist on condition of anonymity.

Security forces looked on as protesters chanted "Death rather than humiliation!" he said, adding that other demonstrators were "going to come from nearby villages."

Hassan Berro, a rights activist in the northeastern city of Qamishli, said some 5,000 people emerged from a mosque there on Friday to demonstrate in solidarity with the people of Daraa and Banias.

Banias on the Mediterranean coast, home to Sunnis, Alawite Muslims and Christians, is a key protest center where government forces killed at least four people when they strafed a residential area with bullets on Sunday.

Daraa, some 100 kilometers south of Damascus, has become the focal point of anti-government protests marred by deadly violence since the political unrest erupted in Syria a month ago.

"With our souls and our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for you Daraa," the protesters shouted in Qamishli, waving Syrian flags.

Another 4,500 people also demonstrated against the regime in the three Kurdish neighborhoods of Raas al-Ain, Amuda and Derbassiye, near Qamishli, Berro told Agence France Presse.

In Latakia, around 1,000 people gathered in the center of the northwestern coastal city's Ugarit Square, calling for greater freedoms, a human rights activist said.

In Homs, baton-wielding police waded into a crowd of around 4,000 people who started demonstrating after prayers and chanted "freedom, freedom," political activist Najatai Tayara told AFP by telephone.

Police with batons and tear gas clashed with some 2,000 demonstrators in Jobar, north of the capital, a human rights activist said.

And about 50 protesters clashed with police in Barza, near Damascus, throwing stones at them, said rights activist Abdul Karim Rihawi.

The latest demonstrations came a day after Syria announced an amnesty for scores of prisoners detained since the protests erupted and as it unveiled a new cabinet to replace the one that quit last month.

Assad's 11-year regime has been rocked by unprecedented protests since March 15 demanding reform and an end to a draconian emergency law.

Separately on Friday, the authorities freed a poet and a blogger who were arrested last month, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The security forces released at dawn on Friday the young blogger Ahmed Hadifa who was arrested on March 23 because of his activities on Facebook," it said.

They also released Mahmoud Mohammed Dibo, who was arrested on March 19 in Annaze village near Banias.

In Geneva, the United Nations issued a statement on Friday denouncing the regime's bloody response to the protests.

It deplored "the rising death toll and brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters, journalists and human rights defenders in Syria despite the government’s promises of reforms and consultations to end the 48-year-old emergency rule."

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch accused Syrian security and intelligence services of torturing many of the hundreds of protesters detained since the demonstrations began.

At the same time, the United States accused Iran of aiding Syria in its crackdown on protesters and the European Union shelved plans for an economic association deal with Damascus.

The foreign ministry denied the American accusation, while there has been no reaction from Iran.