More than 50,000 Syrian demonstrators on Friday flooded the streets of the central city of Hama, where security forces opened fire in a bid to disperse the anti-regime rally, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“This is the largest demonstration in Hama since the outbreak of the opposition movement,” in mid-March, said Rami Adel Rahman, who heads the London-based rights group, adding that security forces had unleashed “intense gunfire” against protesters causing an unknown number of casualties.
Hama in 1982 witnessed a brutal crackdown that left an estimated 20,000 people dead when the Muslim Brotherhood rose up against the late Hafez al-Assad, father of President Bashar al-Assad.
Anti-regime demonstrations mobilised thousands across the country on Friday after the main weekly Muslim prayers, activists said.
