Security forces killed seven protesters in the Syrian capital Damascus, Idlib province and Deraa on Friday, opening fire as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators poured into the country’s streets, activists said.
Some 20,000 people had turned out in the Damascus neighbourhood of Qabun, where two people were killed, and three others were killed in Idlib, said Abdel Karim Rihawi, of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights.
Rihawi added that two protesters were killed in the southern city of Deraa, and 15 more wounded in Kiswe, in Damascus province. In the central city of Homs, 15 people were wounded when security forces fired on them, pro-democracy militants said, reporting on some of the mass demonstrations mounted after Friday prayers to demand the release of hundreds of people detained in earlier demonstrations.
Security agents used live ammunition to disperse protesters in the Qabun and Barzeh areas of the Damascus, while more demonstrators infiltrated the Madaya, Harasta and Saqba regions, Rihawi said. The official Sana news agency said “armed men fired on security forces and citizens in the areas of Qabun and Rukn Eddin in Damascus.”
Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said about 350,000 people turned out in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, while 150,000 others in Hama protested against President Bashar al-Assad. Militants added that more than 7,000 people headed towards the Al-Hassan Mosque in the the Midan area of Damascus, a focal point of protest in the capital.
Syrians had been urged to demonstrate on Friday to demand the release of those people imprisoned in a bloody crackdown on democracy protests, four months after they erupted. Activists issued an appeal for protests to mark a day of “freedom for the hostages” on The Syrian Revolution 2011 page of Facebook, which has been a driving force behind the demonstrations. The Facebook appeal called for nationwide demonstrations “for the freedom of prisoners, for the dignity of free men.” Like their cousins across the Arab world, Syrians have adopted Fridays, when they are allowed to gather for the main weekly Muslim prayers, as their main outlet for dissent.
