DAMASCUS – Some 20,000 people gathered in the Syrian city of Daraa on Thursday for the burial of victims killed by police gunfire the day before, chanting support for a rising anti-regime movement there, rights activists said.
One activist in Daraa, contacted by telephone, said the mourners made their way
from the Omari mosque, where protesters have been holed up for a week, to the burial grounds under pouring rain, chanting: “With our souls, with our blood, we are loyal to our martyrs.”
Syrian authorities on Thursday told reporters 10 people had been killed in Daraa. But rights activists have said at least 100 people were killed by gunfire on Wednesday alone in Daraa, a tribal town at Syria’s border with Jordan that has been the focal point of protests demanding the end of the country’s ruling regime.
