People demonstrate in the Syrian city of Kafranbel on May 31, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/HandoutBy Yara BayoumyBEIRUT | Fri June 3, 2011 at 12: 07 pm EDT
BEIRUT (Reuters)-Syrian security forces shot dead at least 34 demonstrators in Hama on Friday, activist said, in one of the bloodiest events in their crackdown on an 11-week-old rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
In a pattern that is seen every Friday since the middle of March, the demonstrators marched from mosques after noon prayers, to be met by security forces to crush a revolt against Assad, to power in Syria over the past 11 years.
Three residents said security forces and snipers fired on tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city centre in one of the largest protests seen so far in Hama and dozens of injured were taken to a nearby hospital.
"The firing started from the rooftops at the demonstrators. I saw many fall in Assi square and the streets and alleys branching. Blood was everywhere, "a witness who gave his name as Omar told Reuters from Hama.
"It looked to me as if hundreds of people have been injured but i was in panic and wanted to find cover. Funerals of martyrs has already started, "he said.
Protests in Hama has a certain resonance, as the armed forces crushed an armed Islamic insurgency there in 1982 on the orders of President Hafez al-Assad, Bashars father, up to 30 000 people and assemble the parts of the city to the ground.
Rami Abdulrahman Syrian Observatory for human rights to Reuters he expected the death toll would rise because many people at a demonstration had serious injuries.
"Tens of thousands showed up in Hama and Idlib in the largest demonstrations since the uprising began. This is a natural reaction to the increase in killings and lack of seriousness by the regime for each national reconciliation, he said, adding that one person was killed in Idlib.
Syrian forces also opened fire on demonstrations in the eastern town of Deir al-Zor and in Damascus Barzeh district.
Activists and residents say thousands of people marched in the northwestern province of Idlib, Kurdish Northeast, more Damascus suburbs, cities and towns of Homs and Hama Madaya and Zabadani in the West.
ASSAD USES FORCE, PROMISES REFORMS
In the southern city, where protests Deraa first erupted 11 weeks ago hundreds defied military curfews and held protests, chanting "no dialogue with the murderers," two inhabitants in the city told Reuters. The protest broke up later.
Analysts say the protest continues to spread despite the military crackdown, but has shown no sign yet of the necessary scale to overthrow Assad.
Rights groups say the security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians, provoking international outrage over Assad's reckless handling of demonstrators and leading United States's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Assad's legitimacy "had almost ended."
Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed groups, backed by the Islamists and foreign powers, and said the groups have fired on civilians and security forces alike. The authorities have prevented most international media from operating in Syria, which makes it impossible to verify the accounts of the violence.
One activist, who declined to be named, said that before Filming began, demonstrators burned the Baath party Office in Hama, and said that it was not clear how the shooting broke out.
Activists say there have been some cases of citizens capable security forces using personal weapons, and the security police shooting soldiers for refusing to fire at demonstrators.
Assad has responded to this, persistent and most challenging uprising against his rule, by sending tanks to crush demonstrations in some flashpoints and making certain reformist gestures, issuing a general amnesty for political prisoners and launch a national dialogue.
But the demonstrators and the opposition has rejected those measures. Cities and towns of Deraa, Tel Kelakh, Banias and Rastan has undergone intensive crackdowns by the military.
GROWING INDIGNATION
Western powers have escalated their condemnation of the unrest spread and Assad death toll rises.
The United States, the European Union and Australia have introduced sanctions against Syria, but perhaps because of unwillingness to get entangled in another confrontation which Libya and wary of provoking more instability in a region still in the midst of an "Arab Spring", their response has been less violent.
But outrage has grown in a 13-year-old boy, Hamza al-Khatib, died that activists say were tortured before his body was returned to his family. Authorities deny he was tortured.
Khatib has emerged as a symbol of the demonstrators and of Dael, a town near Deraa, about 5,000 protesters up images of him as they are called for freedom and the downfall of the regime.
Two UN Special Adviser said that they were concerned about the Syrian authorities ' systematic and deliberate attacks on civilians, adding they appeared to have targeted residential neighborhoods in their activities.
Opposition in Turkey urged Assad to resign immediately and surrender power to vice President until a Council was formed to introduce democracy in the country.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Antalya, Turkey, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Mariam Karouny in Beirut. Writing by Yara Bayoumy. editing by Tim Pearce)
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