Demonstrators Vow to Bring Down Regime as Syrian Forces Kill 46
Security forces in Syria shot dead at least 46 people in operations across the country on Friday, the Syrian Revolution General Commission said.
In the central city of Homs, two demonstrators were shot dead by security forces when several thousand people gathered to protest, activists said.
One person was shot dead by security forces in the Nahr Aisha quarter of Damascus, and two in Douma, near the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
And 10 people were killed in Hama city, nearby Hilfaya and villages in the northwest of the country, the Britain-based group told Agence France Presse.
The Observatory also reported the discovery of 15 bodies in various cities, saying most had been killed in the past 24 hours.
State television said one member of the security forces was killed and another four were wounded at Basr al-Harir in southern Daraa province during an attack by "armed groups."
In the city of Hama itself, security agents "surrounded the Saad bin Abi Waqas mosque" anticipating a protest after Friday prayers, activists reported.
In July, Hama saw protests by hundreds of thousands of people calling for the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, but the rallies were put down by security forces using deadly violence.
Citing activists on the ground, the Observatory also reported several tanks and troop transports bearing down on the northwest town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province.
Elsewhere, communications were still cut on Friday in Zabadani some 50 kilometers northwest of Damascus, where one man has been reported killed and 153 people arrested since Tuesday.
Opposition protesters had called for more rallies on Friday, the Muslim day of weekly prayer when demonstrations tend to be the heaviest, undaunted by the crackdown the United Nations says has killed more than 2,600 people.
The rallies were staged under the slogan "we advance toward the fall of the regime."
"Six months. More than ever determined to (continue) the March 15 uprising," activists wrote on Facebook page The Syrian Revolution 2011, one of the main engines of the revolt.
The regime blames the violence on “armed terrorist gangs.”
Source: Agence France Presse
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