Demonstrators holding banners during a protest in the town of Banias, Syrian port on April 19, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/HandoutBy Khaled Yacoub OweisAMMAN. Wed, April 20, 2011 8: 00 pm EDT
AMMAN (Reuters) - security forces dressed in carrying Ak - 47, deployed in Homs, overnight, a witness said Thursday, as the Centre of the Syrian city defies a crackdown following the assassination of 21 pro-democracy demonstrators this week.
Residents expected more attacks by armed men, loyal to President Bashar al-Assad called "al-shabbiha," organized armed groups in the custody of the districts, said the witness, who reached Homs after two roadblocks manned by security police.
"The atmosphere is tense." Another day of strikes is scheduled for tomorrow, "said the witness.
The witness, an activist for the rights of the man who did not want to be identified further, was referring to the stores closed after 21 demonstrators were shot by the security police and forces shabbiha on Monday and Tuesday, according to rights activists.
The protests intensified after a tribal leader died in custody following a demonstration in Homs ten days ago, were demanding political freedoms and put an end to corruption.
Homs, a city strategic 165 km (100 miles) off of a main road north of Damascus, became the latest flashpoint in Syria after protests inspired by uprisings in Egypt and the Tunisia broke out last month in South Syria.
Assad has attempted to allay discontent by ordering his cabinet to adopt a 48 year reign to lift emergency law, but opposition figures say the move, the cabinet approve approved Tuesday, will not repression stop.
Rights groups say that more than 200 people have been killed since the beginning of protests. Washington said a new law, apply for permits to hold demonstrations do not clear if the end of the State of emergency would make for a less restrictive Syrian State.
IN AND OUT OF ISOLATION
United States temporarily joined a drive west to rehabilitate Assad after that Barack Obama became President, while preserving the record of the Syria human rights criticism.
The Syria is involved in several conflicts in the Middle East. Any change to the Summit - Assad, supported by his family and the security apparatus, is the absolute rule of the Syria - would ripple across the Arab world and affect the ally of the Syria Iran.
The Branch supports the Palestinian Hamas and Hezbollah Islamist movement in the Lebanon, but seeks peace with Israel. Assad has been largely rehabilitated in the West after being isolated for years after the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, a Lebanese parliamentarian and former Prime Minister, 2005.
In Homs, lowered demonstrators in the streets in great number once again on Wednesday. Their songs demanded "the fall of the regime."
In the town of Banias, in what was seen as another attempt to appease protesters, the head of the security police was ransacked, said the Syrian human rights observatory.
Security forces walled Banias last week after demonstrations against El-Assad and an attack by irregular forces loyal to him on the men who keep a Sunni mosque.
Hours before Tuesday cabinet meeting, the Ministry of the Interior had called on citizens to refrain from in any protest. Figure of the left opposition Mahmoud Issa was arrested the next day in Homs.
(Editing by Peter Graff)
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