CASPER
New member
Syrian forces Friday fired at thousands on protesters heading for Deraa, the heart of a six-week uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, and dozens of people were wounded, witnesses said.
The rallies showed that protesters would not be cowed by heavy military deployments, scores of killings and mass arrests across Syria in a brutal crackdown on the biggest popular challenge ever to 48 years of authoritarian Baath Party rule.
The official state news agency SANA said an "armed terrorist group" killed four soldiers and kidnapped two others in the city where Assad sent tanks and troops to crush resistance Monday.
The latest violence broke out after Friday prayers as thousands of people hit the streets across the country demanding Assad's removal and pledging support for the residents of Deraa, a city of 120,000 where the unrest originated on March 18.
"The people want the overthrow of the regime!" demonstrators chanted in many protests, witnesses said.
Defying violent repression which a Syrian rights group says has killed 500 people, more demonstrations flared in the central cities of Homs and Hama, Banias on the Mediterranean coast, Qamishly in eastern Syria and Harasta, a Damascus suburb.
Activists also reported protest rallies in Damascus itself.
Al Jazeera television aired footage from the village of Mahala near Deraa and from Banias and Homs. Protesters waved Syrian flags and banners saying: "No to the siege of Deraa," "A powerful country is the one whose people are free" and "We are preachers of freedom and peace, not saboteurs."
A witness in Deraa said Syrian forces fired live rounds at thousands of villagers who descended on the besieged city.
"They shot at people at the western gate of Deraa in the Yadoda area, almost three km (two miles) from the center of the city," he said. Another contacted by phone said he saw dozens who were injured being taken away by protesters in their cars.
Another resident said one man had also been killed by a sniper in the city.
The rallies showed that protesters would not be cowed by heavy military deployments, scores of killings and mass arrests across Syria in a brutal crackdown on the biggest popular challenge ever to 48 years of authoritarian Baath Party rule.
The official state news agency SANA said an "armed terrorist group" killed four soldiers and kidnapped two others in the city where Assad sent tanks and troops to crush resistance Monday.
The latest violence broke out after Friday prayers as thousands of people hit the streets across the country demanding Assad's removal and pledging support for the residents of Deraa, a city of 120,000 where the unrest originated on March 18.
"The people want the overthrow of the regime!" demonstrators chanted in many protests, witnesses said.
Defying violent repression which a Syrian rights group says has killed 500 people, more demonstrations flared in the central cities of Homs and Hama, Banias on the Mediterranean coast, Qamishly in eastern Syria and Harasta, a Damascus suburb.
Activists also reported protest rallies in Damascus itself.
Al Jazeera television aired footage from the village of Mahala near Deraa and from Banias and Homs. Protesters waved Syrian flags and banners saying: "No to the siege of Deraa," "A powerful country is the one whose people are free" and "We are preachers of freedom and peace, not saboteurs."
A witness in Deraa said Syrian forces fired live rounds at thousands of villagers who descended on the besieged city.
"They shot at people at the western gate of Deraa in the Yadoda area, almost three km (two miles) from the center of the city," he said. Another contacted by phone said he saw dozens who were injured being taken away by protesters in their cars.
Another resident said one man had also been killed by a sniper in the city.
