Pro-democracy protests spread in Syria
According to international media reports appeared on early Saturday
morning, “thousands of demonstrators in the southern city of Daraa, on
the border with Jordan, and in some other cities and towns took to the
streets in protest, defying a State that has once again demonstrated its
willingness to use lethal force.”
As reported by Michael Slackman of New York Times, “It was the most
serious challenge to 40 years of repressive rule by the Assad family
since 1982, when the president at the time, Hafez al-Assad, massacred at
least 10,000 protesters in the northern Syrian city of Hama.”
“The city of Deraa, south of Damascus, has become the centre of a
serious challenge to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Some of
the protesters started a fire under a bronze statue of his father, the
late President Hafez al-Assad, witnesses reported.
More than 40 people are thought to have been killed in the town in a
week of protests, although it has been hard to verify the accounts.
Unconfirmed reports on Friday said another group of protesters trying to
reach Deraa were killed in a nearby village when security forces opened
fire.” BBC reported
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