DAMASCUS – At least seven people were killed when Syrian security forces fired into a crowd in the flashpoint town of Homs, as nationwide protests showed no sign of abating, rights activists said on Monday. The deaths occurred when security forces opened fire with live rounds late Sunday to disperse demonstrators in the Bab Sba’a area of the town, 160 kilometres (100 miles) to the north of Damascus, witnesses said.
Two activists, who declined to be identified, spoke of seven dead, but a third said nine had died. They all agreed that some 20 people had been wounded. On Sunday, regime supporters also broke up two rallies in southern Syria, wounding five people, after a presidential vow to end emergency rule within a week was dismissed as not enough and was followed by new protests.
In the country’s major port, Latakia, around 10,000 people took to the streets late on Sunday after the funeral of a protester killed on Friday, a rights activist told AFP. The ruling Baath Party newspaper insisted on Monday that the reforms announced by Assad would be implemented “because they have become an urgent necessity in the light of the painful events which are happening across Syria”.
US secretly financing Syrian opposition
WASHINGTON – The US govt has been secretly financing Syrian opposition groups, including a satellite TV channel beaming anti-regime programming into the country, The Washington Post reported Monday. Citing previously undisclosed diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks, the newspaper said the London-based Barada TV channel, which began broadcasting in April 2009, has ramped up operations to cover the mass protests in Syria. Barada TV is closely affiliated with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of Syrian exiles, The Post said.
Classified US diplomatic cables show that the State Department has funneled as much as $6 million (4.1 million euros) to the group since 2006, the report said. Protests calling for greater freedom and sweeping political reform erupted in Syria on March 15, posing an unprecedented challenge to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, in power since 2000. Assad on Saturday pledged to lift almost 50 years of draconian emergency rule within a week, but the gesture was brushed aside as not enough and was followed by new protests. AFP
