Syrian security forces killed three demonstrators and wounded at least a dozen more Friday as hundreds of thousands turned out to demand the departure of Bashar al-Assad, activists said.
The protests came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said time was running out for the embattled Syrian president, as he pursues a violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists that has killed more than 1,300.
“Two demonstrators died from firing by the security forces in the districts of Bab Sebaa and Al-Qarabis,” an activist in Homs said. “Twelve others were wounded in various other areas” of the city, 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Damascus.
“Army tanks entered the district of Baba Amr,” he added, saying “more than 100,000 people participated today in demonstrations in several districts.” And in Damascus, security forces shot dead a demonstrator in the Qadam quarter, a rights activist said.
“One demonstrator was killed by a gunshot fired by security forces during a protest in Qadam,” the activist said without elaborating. In Hama, 210 kilometres (130 miles) north of Damascus, “more than 200,000 protesters gathered in Al-Assi Square,” an activist told AFP by telephone.
Abdel Karim Rihawi, president of the Syrian League for Human Rights, said “tens of thousands of protesters headed towards Deir Ezzor’s Freedom Square upon leaving the mosques” after the main weekly Muslim prayers in the eastern oil hub on the Euphrates River. In Jabal al-Zawiyah, which has been the theatre of army operations since Tuesday, “tens of thousands of people started to march from the village towards Maaret al-Numan,” he told AFP.
Overnight, Rami Abdel Rahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces had killed three civilians in the northwestern region of Jabal al-Zawiyah, as explosions were heard in the coastal city of Latakia.
Before Friday’s protests, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticised the Assad regime’s incoherence in authorising an opposition meeting while stifling dissent.
“Allowing one meeting of the opposition in Damascus is not sufficient,” she told reporters on a visit to Lithuania.
“I’m just hurt by recent reports of continuing violence on the border and in Aleppo, where demonstrators have been beaten, attacked with knives by government-organised groups and security forces,” Clinton said.
“It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time. There isn’t any question about that.”
Friday’s protests followed a call from a Facebook group for people to take to the streets nationwide.
The Syrian Revolution 2011 group called on people to rally after weekly prayers, branding July 1 “the Friday of departure” and saying in a message to Assad: “We don’t love you… Go away, you and your party.”
