(Al Jazeera) — Protests have erupted in at least three towns across Syria in the most serious case of unrest in decades for a country that has been ruled with strict emergency laws for almost half a century.
(BBC) — At least two protesters have been shot dead in the south Syrian city of Deraa as security forces clamped down on a protest rally.
A resident told Reuters news agency the pair had been killed by security forces as protesters demanded political freedom and an end to corruption.
A human rights activist told AFP that four people had been killed.
President Bashar al-Assad, whose Baath party has dominated politics for nearly 50 years, tolerates no dissent.
The state news agency Sana said violence and “acts of sabotage” had broken out at a demonstration in Deraa on Friday, prompting security forces to intervene.
It accused “infiltrators” of seeking to “provoke chaos through acts of violence which resulted in damage to private and public property”.
‘Hundreds injured’
The resident who spoke to Reuters named the two dead people as Hussam Abdel Wali Ayyash and Akram Jawabreh.
They had been among “several thousand” demonstrators chanting “God, Syria, Freedom” and anti-corruption slogans, accusing the president’s family of corruption, the resident said.
Security forces, the Reuters source added, were reinforced with troops flown in by helicopters.
An anti-government website, Free Syria, also named Akram Jawabreh as one of “a number” of protesters killed.
The unnamed human rights activist contacted by AFP named both Mr Jawabreh and Mr Ayyash among four people killed.
“The security forces fired live bullets at the protesters,” the activist said, adding that “hundreds” of protesters had been wounded.
He told AFP that “many” of the wounded had been “snatched by security forces” from hospital and moved to unknown locations.
One thought on “Syria security forces clash with protesters”
I just heard a very sad news that the Bercha-Groupie of Meles killed more than 45 people of peaceful demonstrators in Sana’a Yemen today. For anyone who saw this goon from Dedebit’s most recent press interview, it would not be hard to figure out that this is coming. ‘I have killed almost 200 hundred of my own and nobody did anything about it. And I end up winning 99.6% of the vote in just 5 years after that. Go!! Go out and kill 40,50 or more of them and blame it on the demonstrators or your ‘misguided and over zealous’ supporters . As long you have Al-Qaeeda in your backyard and I have Al Shabaab next door, we can do any thing. I mean anything including sending our hussy mistresses on a spending spree aboard. Get it?’. Brother Al G/M has coined up the right terminology for such new ruthless dictators. Thugtators!!! Right on Brother AL, Right On!!!!