Global Arab Network | Syria: Army opens fire on hundreds, 15 protesters killed

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Syria: Army opens fire on hundreds, 15 protesters killed

Global Arab Network - - George Haddad

Wednesday, 23 March 2011 20:55

Syria_secret_police_opens_fire_on_hundreds_15_protesters_killed

Syria (Deraa) - Syrian army and secret police killed 15 people on Wednesday in an attack on the southern city of Deraa.
Syrian Authorities opened fire on hundreds of youths marching from nearby villages in solidarity, witnesses said.

"They (the youths) came into Deraa from the north entrance. Bodies fell in the streets. We do not know how many died," one witness said.

"You didn't know where the bullets were coming from. No one could carry away any of the fallen," another resident said.

Other sources said eight more people died, bringing the death toll Wednesday to 15. Overall, at least 21 people have died in unrest in the city since Friday.

Parents were seen crying in the streets during the evening, and loudspeakers from mosques around Deraa called on those whose relatives had died to go to clinics to collect the bodies.

"Peaceful, peaceful," the loudspeakers echoed -- a cry taken up by protesters across the Arab world to emphasise the peaceful nature of their demonstrations against entrenched and undemocratic rulers and corruption, and demands for freedom.

Another witness saw 20 army trucks carrying soldiers heading to the city.

From Deraa, Lina Sinjab, BBC News said: “Journalists were not allowed access to the area near al-Omari mosque - the main gathering place in central Deraa. “

“The rest of the city appeared to be deserted, except for a heavy security presence. As we were leaving, we saw a long convoy of army vehicles and soldiers heading towards the city.”

“Security forces opened fire on protesters in the late afternoon, with reports of casualties which have been difficult to verify.”

Wissam Tarif, executive director of the human rights group Insan, told CNN from outside Damascus that Syrian security forces fired live ammunition at unarmed protesters.

He said he was aware of three protesters killed in the clashes, but added there was no information on the injured because people don't go to the hospitals anymore because some disappeared after being taken for treatment earlier in the unrest.

According to Tarif, demonstrators want an end to the state of emergency in Syria, the release of prisoners of conscience and more freedoms.

Deraa, on the Jordanian border, has long been a stronghold of the Baath Party, which recruits cadres from the region. But in recent days it has become a focus of unprecedented protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

The shooting Wednesday began just after midnight, when security forces attacked protesters in the vicinity of the Omari mosque in the city's old quarter, the focal point of the Deraa protests, residents said.

Electricity was cut off and telephone services were severed. Cries of "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)" erupted in one quarter after another as the shooting at the mosque began.

YouTube footage showed what purported to be the street in front of the mosque before the attack, with the sound of gunfire audible and a person inside the mosque grounds yelling: "Brother don't shoot. This country is big enough for me and you."

The United Nations, France and the United States condemned the violence. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a "transparent investigation" into the killings and for those responsible to be held accountable.

"We are deeply concerned by the Syrian government's use of violence, intimidation and arbitrary arrests to hinder the ability of its people to freely exercise their universal rights," said U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

"We call on the Syrian government to exercise restraint and refrain from violence against these peaceful protesters."

Those killed included Ali Ghassab al-Mahamid, a doctor from a prominent Deraa family who went to the Omari mosque to help victims of the attack.

"Syrian authorities think they can kill non-violent democratic protesters with impunity," exiled Syrian rights defender Haitham al-Manna told BBC television from Paris.

An official Syrian statement said: "Outside parties are transmitting lies about the situation in Deraa," blaming what it described as armed gangs for the violence.

The mosque attack brought to 10 the number of civilians killed by Syrian forces in six days of demonstrations for political freedom and an end to corruption in the country of 20 million.

The Baath Party has banned opposition and enforced emergency laws since 1963. But the wave of Arab unrest which has toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt presents Assad with the biggest challenge to his rule since he succeeded his father Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000.

Assad, a close ally of Iran, a key player in neighbouring Lebanon and supporter of militant groups opposed to Israel, has dismissed rising demands for fundamental reform in Syria where his Baath Party has held a monopoly on power for 48 years.

France, which has been increasingly vocal in condemning the violence in Syria, urged Damascus to carry out political reforms without delay and respect its commitment to human rights.

It called for an investigation into the recent deaths in Deraa, the release of those detained in demonstrations and an end to the use of "excessive force."

Only a day earlier, the U.N. Office for Human Rights said the authorities "need to put an immediate halt to the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, especially the use of live ammunition."

Tuesday, Vice President Farouq al-Shara said Assad was committed to "continue the path of reform and modernisation in Syria," Lebanon's al-Manar television reported.

Authorities arrested a leading campaigner who had supported the protesters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. It said Loay Hussein, a political prisoner from 1984 to 1991, was taken from his home near Damascus.

In Damascus, authorities released six female protesters on Wednesday who took part in a silent demonstration last week supporting the release of political prisoners, lawyers said.

Assad has lifted some bans on private enterprise but ignored calls to end emergency law, curb a pervasive security apparatus, develop rule of law and freedom of expression, free political prisoners and reveal the fate of tens of thousands of dissidents who disappeared in the 1980s.

In the last four years Syria has emerged from a period of isolation imposed by the West over its role in Iraq, and in Lebanon where it stationed troops for nearly three decades, and its backing for mostly Palestinian militant groups.

Assad strengthened Syria's ties with Shi'ite Iran and tried to improve relations with the United States and strike a peace deal with Israel to regain the occupied Golan Heights, lost in the 1967 Middle East war.

Limited economic liberalisation in the last decade has been marked by the rise of Rami Makhlouf, another cousin of Assad, as a business tycoon controlling key companies. (Reuters, CNN, SANA, AP, AFP, BBC, Youtube, Others)

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