By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

Reuters 
 

AMMAN: Thousands of Syrians attending the funerals of pro-democracy protesters called Sunday for the removal of President Bashar Assad, witnesses said, in the latest outburst against his rule.
“The people want the overthrow of the regime,” mourners chanted as they streamed out of the Big Mosque in the Damascus suburb of Saqba, according to one of the witnesses.
The slogan echoed the rallying cry of uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt this year which swept out two of the most entrenched rulers in the Arab world.

Assad has largely dismissed the protests as part of a foreign-backed conspiracy to sow sectarian strife in Syria.
Syrian authorities blame most of the upheaval on “armed saboteur groups,” backed by Islamists and foreign powers, who they say have killed more than 120 soldiers and police.
Witnesses said mourners at Nour Mosque in the central city of Homs shouted “Leave, leave,” at the Sunday funeral of six of 11 people that rights groups said were killed by security services Saturday.

“The shooting was in cold blood. People were streaming peacefully out of the cemetery,” a resident of Homs said.
In Saqba, a witness told Reuters by phone that mourners also chanted the name of “Martyr Ziad al-Qadi,” reportedly killed when security forces fired live rounds at a demonstration in the suburb Saturday.
“A large demonstration [Saturday] calling for the overthrow of the regime had been going on since the afternoon.
“It felt like the whole of Saqba took to the streets. Security forces entered in the evening and started firing,” the witness said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, said it had the names of 863 civilians who had been killed in shootings by security forces since the pro-democracy uprising erupted 10 weeks ago.
Syria has barred most international media since the protests broke out two months ago, making it difficult to verify accounts of the violence.
Activists and demonstrators have posted videos on social media websites purporting to show unarmed protesters coming under fire.

The U.S. had been trying to patch up relations with Assad to wean him off an anti-Israel alliance with Iran, but reports of the crackdown have turned Washington against the Syrian leader.
Washington told Assad Thursday to lead a transformation to democracy or step aside.
The U.S. State Department said in a statement “the Assad regime remains the source of instability as it foments violence by meeting peaceful protests with deadly force and mass arrests.”
Syria’s state news agency said Saturday that armed groups killed 17 people Friday in the Idlib and Homs provinces. It said the Interior Ministry had instructed the police “not to shoot, to preserve the lives of civilians,” and blamed the violence on the armed groups.

The unrest has posed a grave challenge to Assad’s rule. In response, he has lifted a 48-year state of emergency and issued a decree to grant citizenship to stateless Kurds. He also sent tanks to several cities to stamp out protests, witnesses said. Kurdish leaders said that the decree has not been implemented.

Rights campaigners said that the lifting of emergency law has not put an end to beatings, torture and arbitrary arrests, with over 10,000 Syrians detained since the uprising erupted in the southern city of Daraa on March 18.
Scores of people were arrested Sunday in the province of Idlib and in the southern Hauran Plain, they said.
“The president can still try to redeem himself by doing what a few leaders in Eastern Europe did, which is leading immediate transformation to a democracy and entering fair elections if he wants,” opposition figure Walid al-Bunni said.