Syrian security forces shot dead at least 44 civilians in attacks on pro-democracy demonstrations that erupted across Syria on Friday, the Syrian National Organisation for Human Rights said on Saturday. Prominent rights campaigner Ammar Qurabi, who heads of the organisation, said more than half were killed in the northwest province of Idlib, where tanks deployed on Friday to crush large demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
The protests broke out in defiance of a military crackdown that another rights group says has killed more than 800 civilians in the past nine weeks. The 45-year-old Assad had largely dismissed the protests as serving a foreign-backed conspiracy to sow sectarian strife. Syrian authorities blame most of the violence on armed groups, backed by Islamists and outside powers, who they say have killed more than 120 soldiers and police. They have recently suggested they believe the protests have peaked.
