Post date: Mar 25, 2011 4:58:55 PM
Protests spread across Syria challenging the rule of the Assad family after their forces killed dozens of demonstrators in the south.
DAEL (NORTHERN DERAA), SYRIA (MARCH 25, 2011) AMV - Protests spread across Syria on Friday (March 25), challenging the rule of the Assad family after their forces killed dozens of demonstrators in the south.
In the southern city of Deraa, which has been in revolt for a week, gunfire and tear gas scattered a crowd of thousands after people lit a fire under a statue of late president Hafez al-Assad, whose son Bashar has ruled since his death in 2000.
Al Jazeera aired comments by a man who said security forces had killed 20 people on Friday in the nearby town of Sanamein.In Hama, in the centre of the country, where the elder Assad put down an Islamist revolt in 1982 at a cost of many thousands of lives, residents said people streamed through the streets after weekly prayers chanting "Freedom is ringing out!" -- a slogan heard in uprisings sweeping the rest of the Arab world.
The same chant had earlier marked funeral processions in Deraa for some of the at least 37 people killed on Wednesday (March 23), when security agents attacked pro-democracy groups at a mosque. In all, 44 deaths have been reported in the past week in Deraa.
Security men, on alert across the country during weekly prayers at mosques, quickly stifled a small demonstration in the capital Damascus. They hauled away dozens among a crowd of some 200 who chanted their support for people of Deraa.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has reiterated its call for an independent and impartial investigation into Wednesday's killings.
"The situation in Syria has worsened considerably over the past week, with the use of live ammunition and tear gas by the authorities having resulted in a total of at least 37 people being killed in Deraa, including two children. We welcome the decision to investigate the killings and reiterate our call for this investigation to be independent and impartial; those responsible for the killings must be held accountable," spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.
In the capital Damascus, social media websites showed images of people inside two different mosques chanting anti-government slogans.
In another part of Damascus, pro-government supporters held a motorcade, holding up posters bearing his image.
On Jan. 31, Assad had said there was no chance political upheavals then shaking Tunisia and Egypt would spread to Syria.
The Baath Party, which has ruled Syria tightly since a 1963 coup, would draft laws to provide for media freedoms, and look at allowing other political movements, Assad's aide said. The party would also seek to lift living standards.
Assad, who has strengthened Syria's ties with Iran, has come under criticism for his handling of the protests. The United States described the shootings of protesters as "brutal".