The US, French and German leaders pledged to consider new steps to punish Syria after security forces shot dead at least 22 people as tens of thousands staged anti-regime protests on the first Friday of Ramadan.
President Barack Obama spoke separately to France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as Western nations cranked up pressure on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
“The leaders condemned the Assad regime’s continued use of indiscriminate violence against the Syrian people,” a White House statement said Friday. “They welcomed the August 3 presidential statement by the UN Security Council condemning Syria’s actions, but also agreed to consider additional steps to pressure the Assad regime and support the Syrian people.”
The telephone consultations came as Washington appeared to be moving towards a direct call for Assad to leave, after saying this week his presence was now fomenting instability and leading the Middle East down a dangerous path. The Syrian government has sought to crush the democracy movement with brutal force, killing around 1,650 civilians and arresting thousands of dissenters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Group.
“Twenty-two people were killed Friday, 15 during daytime protests… and seven at night after the evening Taraweeh prayers,” said Abdel Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights.
“Among the 15 killed in the daytime, seven were in Irbin, three in Damir and one in Maadamiya,” all near Damascus, he said by telephone.
Rihawi added that three others were killed in the central city of Homs and one in Nawa, in the south.
At night, “seven protesters were killed by security forces firing to disperse the demonstrators, two in the Nahri Aisha district of Damascus, four in Homs and one in Douma,” an outer suburb of Damascus, he said. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory, told AFP that more than 50 people also were seriously wounded.
