Thousands of Syrians flooded streets across the country in anti-regime protests on the last Friday of Ramadan, activists said, vowing to bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad despite deadly crackdowns.
Protesters took to the streets in response to calls by The Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook group which urged rallies under the banner of “Friday of patience and determination.”
Thousands of people demonstrated in the flashpoint central city of Homs, emerging in several neighbourhoods of the industrial hub, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Security forces broke up a demonstration in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, one of the hubs of the protest movement that was launched in mid-March, the rights group said. They opened fire in the air forcing the protesters to pull back, it said, adding that there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Protests also took place in Al-Bukamal, a town on the border with Iraq, in the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Kiswah, in Hirak in the south and in the mostly Kurdish-populated city of Qamishli in the northeast, said Omar Idibi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees group said.