Thursday, March 24, 2011

DARAA, Syria: Syrian police launched a relentless assault Wednesday on a neighborhood sheltering anti-government protesters, fatally shooting at least 15 in an operation that lasted nearly 24 hours, witnesses said.

At least six were killed in a predawn attack on Al-Omari mosque in the southern agricultural city of Daraa, where protesters have taken to the streets in calls for reforms and political freedoms, witnesses told the Associated Press. An activist in contact with people in Daraa said police shot another three people protesting in its Roman-era city center after dusk. Six more bodies were found later in the day, the activist said.

The uprising in Daraa and at least four nearby villages has become the biggest domestic challenge since the 1970s to the Syrian government. Security forces have responded with water cannon, tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. The total death toll now stands at 22.

As the casualties mounted, people from the nearby villages of Inkhil, Jasim, Khirbet Ghazaleh and Al-Harrah tried to march on Daraa Wednesday night but security forces opened fire as they approached, the activist said. It was not immediately clear if there were more deaths or injuries.

Democracy activists used social-networking sites to call for massive demonstrations across the country Friday, a day they dubbed “Dignity Friday.” Heavy shooting rattled Daraa throughout the day, and an Associated Press reporter in the city heard bursts of semi-automatic gunfire echoing in its old center in the early afternoon.

State TV said that an “armed gang” had attacked an ambulance in the city and security forces killed four attackers and wounded others and was chasing others who fled. It denied that security forces had stormed the mosque, but also showed footage of guns, AK-47s, hand grenades, ammunition and money that it claimed had been seized from inside.

A video posted on Facebook by activists showed what it said was an empty street near Al-Omari Mosque, with the rattle of shooting in the background as a voice shouts: “My brother, does anyone kill his people? You are our brothers.” The authenticity of the footage could not be independently verified.

Mobile phone connections to Daraa were cut and checkpoints throughout the city were manned by soldiers and plainclothes security agents with rifles.
An ambulance was parked on the side of a road leading to the old city, its windshield smashed. The witness said hundreds of anti-terrorism police had surrounded Al-Omari mosque.

The activist in Damascus said six had been killed in the raid on the mosque, which began after midnight and lasted for about three hours. A witness in Daraa told the AP that five people had been killed, including a woman who looked out of her window to see what was happening.

The activist said witnesses saw the body of a 12-year-old girl near the mosque late Wednesday afternoon. Another man was shot dead by police after a funeral for one of the victims, and four more bodies were seen lying near the offices of a security agency but no one dared to come and pick them up, the activist said.

France urged Damascus to carry out political reforms without delay and respect its commitment to human rights. The United States voiced “alarm” at the crackdown and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called for an inquiry into the deaths.

Authorities arrested a leading campaigner who had supported the protesters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday. It said Loay Hussein, a political prisoner from 1984 to 1991, was taken from his home near Damascus.

In Damascus, authorities released six female protesters Wednesday who took part in a silent demonstration last week supporting the release of political prisoners, lawyers said. – AP, AFP