By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Suleiman al-Khalidi

Reuters
 

AMMAN: Syrian villagers pulled 13 bodies from a mass grave near the southern city of Daraa Monday, residents said, and thousands joined a night-time march in a suburb of Damascus demanding the overthrow of the government.
Daraa residents say hundreds of people have been missing since tanks and soldiers moved in last month to crush the cradle of opposition to President Bashar Assad’s 11-year rule.
They said villagers digging in farmland in the outskirts of the city uncovered the decomposed bodies of Abdullah Abdul Aziz Aba Zaid, 62, and four of his children.
The villagers also found the bodies of a woman, a child and six men, all unidentified, residents said. It was not clear when they died, but Daraa residents say dozens of civilians were killed during the military assault on the city’s old quarter.

Syrian and international rights groups say Syrian forces have killed at least 700 civilians across the country since the first protests broke out in Daraa on March 18.
The report on the mass grave could not be confirmed independently.
Thousands of demonstrators marched through the Damascus suburb of Saqba Monday night at the funeral of Ahmad Ataya, who died of wounds inflicted when security forces fired at a pro-democracy rally in the capital last month.

A witness said the demonstrators marched at night to avoid the tough security measures that are in force during the day. It was the biggest protest in the Damascus outskirts since a security crackdown three weeks ago.
Authorities have blamed most of the violence during the wave of protests on armed groups backed by Islamists and outside powers, who they say have killed more than 120 members of the security forces.

Witnesses in Daraa said tanks were still positioned at main city junctions and in the outskirts, but authorities had shortened the curfew by three hours, allowing people out on the streets until 5 p.m.
The official Syrian news agency said Assad met a delegation from Daraa and they discussed the “positive atmosphere there as a result of cooperation between the residents and the army.”
For the past two months Syrian soldiers and police have been trying to quell demonstrations across the country calling for Assad’s overthrow.

They have tended to crack down on a flashpoint area for several days, using tank and rifle fire and mass arrests to subdue it, and then move on to another area.
Troops backed by armour have now deployed in or around towns and villages across the southern Hauran plain, the central province of Homs and areas near the coast. Security forces have also tightened their grip on Damascus and its suburbs.

International media organizations are largely banned from Syria, making it difficult to verify accounts of events there.
Assad, who trained as an ophthalmologist, has used a mixture of repression and promises of reform to stem the protests, which were inspired by uprisings across the Arab world.