Troops on Friday launched a long-feared crackdown in Jisr al-Shughur, as thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across Syria and the US slammed the “slaughter of innocent lives.”
“Army units have started their mission to control Jisr al-Shughur and neighbouring villages and arrest the armed gangs,” state television said, adding that the raid on the northwestern town had been launched “at the request of residents.” One witness told AFP that “military forces bombarded the villages around Jisr al-Shughur in their advance on the town.” “Soldiers torched wheat fields in the village of Al-Ziyara,” 15 kilometres (nine miles) southeast of Jisr al-Shughur, he said.
Rights activists said that most of the 50,000 inhabitants of Jisr al-Shughur had fled — many to neighbouring Turkey — when tanks and troops began midweek converging on the northwestern town and that it was now largely deserted. Syrian state television blamed “armed terrorist gangs” on Wednesday as it ran images of the “massacres” in Jisr al-Shughur which it said had resulted in the deaths of 120 police and troops on Monday. But opposition activists say the deaths resulted from a mutiny by troops who refused orders to crack down on protesters. It was not possible to independently verify the version of events as foreign journalists are banned from reporting in Syria. Protesters meanwhile poured on to the streets of main towns and cities Friday after the weekly Muslim main prayers, many chanting slogans against President Bashar al-Assad and in support of residents of Jisr al-Shughur.
A rights activist said Syrian security forces shot dead two protesters in the southern province of Daraa. “Shots were fired from a military vehicle” at peaceful protesters in the province’s Bosra al-Harir area, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reached by telephone from Nicosia. State television said “armed men” fired at security forces in Bosra al-Harir, killing a security force member and a civilian.
In north Syria, more than 8,000 protesters marched through three Kurdish towns to demand political reform and in solidarity with the town of Jisr al-Shughur, said another activist, Hassan Berro. “With our blood and our soul, we sacrifice ourselves for Jisr al-Shughur,” the demonstrators chanted in Ras al-Ain on the border with Turkey. Protests were also taking place in Qamishli and Amuda. The Syrian Observatory said others protests were held and gunshots heard in the city of Homs, north of Damascus. Security forces kept away as a crowd of more than 7,000 converged on Al-Assi Square, in the city of Hama, further north, where at least 60 civilians were killed on June 3, the group said, citing local residents.
