AMMAN – Syrian security forces killed at least three pro-democracy demonstrators in the southern city of Deraa as protests against the rule of Bashar al-Assad flared in a number of towns after Friday prayers, witnesses said. In the east, thousands of ethnic Kurds demonstrated for reform despite the president’s offer this week to ease rules which bar many Kurds from citizenship, activists said.
Security men opened fire on thousands of protesters in Deraa, where protests first erupted last month before spreading across the country over the past three weeks. Local residents contacted by Reuters said at least three people were killed. “I saw pools of blood and three bodies in the street being picked up by relatives in the Mahatta area,” said one of the witnesses, who spoke to Reuters by telephone.
“The were snipers on roofs. Gunfire was heavy. The injured are being taken to homes. No one trusts putting his relative in a hospital in these circumstances,” he added. Many protesters fear they would be arrested if taken to clinics.
Protests also erupted in the western city of Homs and gunfire was heard in the Damascus suburb of Harasta. The suburb of Douma, where protests have been sustained in recent days, was largely out of contact due to phone lines being cut, local activists said. Media are heavily restricted in Syria. Popular demonstrations calling for greater freedoms have shaken the country for the last three weeks.
Assad has responded with a blend of force against protesters, and gestures towards reform, most recently aimed at ethnic Kurds. In the northeastern city of Qamishli, Kurdish youths chanted: “No Kurd, no Arab, Syrian people are one. We salute the martyrs of Deraa”. Demonstrations have raised concerns that unrest could fuel ethnic and sectarian tensions in the country.
Friday demonstrations, which online activists have this week dubbed the “Friday of Steadfastness”, have tended to see the largest protests against Assad’s 11 years in power. In previous weeks security forces have opened fire, killing dozens. In Deraa, people first demonstrated last month against the arrest of children who had scrawled pro-democracy graffiti inspired by the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings on school walls.
Sunni Muslim tribes there resent the wealth and power amassed by the minority Alawites, the offshoot sect of Shi’ite Islam to which Assad belongs. Mobile phone lines had been cut or were restricted over the last two days, the residents said.
Protesters chanted: “The people want the overthrow of the regime”, an echo of slogans elsewhere in the Arab world. The Baath Party, in power since a 1963 coup and run by Assad’s father until his death in 2000, has tolerated no dissent and has used emergency law to justify arbitrary arrests.
A key demand of the protesters is to repeal the law. Assad has ordered a panel to draft anti-terrorism legislation to replace emergency law, but critics say it will probably grant the state much of the same powers.
