Witnesses: 17 killed as thousands protest in Syria

[oberliner]

Source: MSNBC

Some 17 people were killed in Syria Friday, a hospital source and an activist said, after reports that security forces had opened fire on thousands of protesters.

After anger at the autocratic rule of Bashar al-Assad erupted again after weekly Friday prayers at mosques, troops used live ammunition to disperse the protesters in the southern city of Deraa.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42491176/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

[Jumping John]

1. A mistake Obama made was saying no massacres will occur if he can step in & stop them. n/t

[pampango]

2. Aljazeera: At least 27 deaths reported in Daraa as fresh demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad's

rule rocks the country.

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/04/201148131548860250.html

Syrian security forces have killed at least 27 demonstrators in the southern city of Daraa, amid fresh protests against the rule of Bashar al-Assad, hospital sources and witnesses told the Reuters news agency. The deaths occurred after Friday prayers when security forces opened fire with rubber-coated bullets and live rounds to disperse stone-throwing protesters, a witness told Al Jazeera.

In the east, thousands of ethnic Kurds also demonstrated for reform despite the Syrian president's offer this week to ease rules which bar many Kurds from citizenship. Separate protests erupted in the western port city of Latakia, Tartus, Baniyas, Homs - near the Lebanese border - and in Edlib, in the northwest of the country. Gunfire was also heard in Harasta, a suburb of the capital, Damascus.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting on Friday from Douma, another Damascus suburb, said there were no security forces visible in the area. But "it's a new situation in Syria", she said. "We saw thousands of people taking to the streets after Friday prayers, from all walks of life: young and old, professionals and not professionals, educated, not educated, there were some Islamists, some nationalists.


Mazen Darwish, an activist in Damascus, told Al Jazeera that the pledged reforms were positive but not enough. "It's not about this problem or that problem. It's about transforming Syria from dictatorship to democracy," he said. "To change the constitution, open up political life, to have free press and political parties and lift the emergency law."