Assign nations of Syrian EU sent the Suppression - BBC News

April 27, 2011, update 13 h 23 GMT United Nations calls for the countries of the EU of Syria abuse investigationsFive called the Syrian ambassadors to condemn the recent violent repression of Damascus on anti-government protestersFrance said.

Paris said that the diplomatic action was jointly conducted by the France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Earlier, A Chief, Ban Ki-moon condemned the Syria for the use of tanks with live bullets against the demonstrators.

There are reports of shooting later in the southern town of Deraa, where rally first exploded last month.

Most tanks are supposed to be directed to city - where army troops attacked demonstrators Monday.

Over 450 people around the Syria were killed since the start of the demonstrations for democracy nearly six weeks ago.

The Government of President Bashar al-Assad disputed Western opinion that events have been non-violent.

In a statement made by the official news agency, he said that he sent troops in several towns on the request of the citizens who are concerned with the "armed extremists". Opposition leaders say that the protests are peaceful.

"Snipers" of Deraa

Top French diplomat Hervé Ladsous met with Syrian Ambassador Lamia Chakkour Wednesday, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

He said that Paris expressed "firm condemnation of the escalation of the repression by the Syrian authorities against the population."

The communication has been "part of a movement coordinated with Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy."

The envoys are also EU must gather in Brussels Friday to discuss imposing sanctions on the Syria.

During this time, in Deraa, sources reported sporadic firing and explosions Wednesday.

Images displayed on the internet showed Syrian tanks into the city to reinforce the troops moved two days ago.

Amnesty International cited eyewitnesses as saying that the army were taking injured residents lying in the streets and that others were trying to save them.

But with communications apparently cut from Deraa, it's hard, it is certain that what is happening there, the BBC Jim Muir at Lebanon nearby, said.

Elite army units have also moved into the Duma, a suburb of Damascus, our correspondent adds.

He adds that there are also reports of arrests, widespread opposition figures in the country.

Despite repression, protest organisers have called the sit-in Thursday to commemorate those who were killed. Friday - the traditional day of protest - had been designated as a "day of rage".

453 Now reaches A number of deaths since the start of the unrest, said the Syrian human rights observatory.

"Refusal of fire".

On Wednesday, a human rights activist said it has documented the cases of a soldier shot dead by the army for refusing to fire on the demonstrators in Baniyas.

The army has blamed Islamic radicals for his death, but the lament at the funeral of the soldier "openly accused the security forces of shooting that soldier", Wissam tariff, Director of the Syrian Insan human rights organization, told the BBC.

The 15-nation United Nations Security Council should address the issue of the Syria again later Wednesday.

A draft text - proposed by the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Portugal - condemns violence against civilians and supports the appeal of Mr. Ban for an independent "transparent" death investigation in demonstrations.

The Syrian Envoy to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, said Damascus was able to conduct its own investigation and that "nothing to hide".

The BBC, Barbara Plett, at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, says that it will be difficult for members of the Security Council to agree.

China and the Russia veto power holders are especially careful because they are unhappy with the intervention in Libya, she said.

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News Analysis: Syrian crisis tests the courage of his autocratic ruler

Joseph Eid/Agency France - Press - Getty ImagesPresident Bashar Al-Assad has left a willingness to adopt major reforms, but time seems to be missing.

Cairo - For years, President Bashar Al-Assad has nurtured a reputation as a leader in a region full of aging of autocrats young and looking to the future, a man who could still reform repressive police state, he inherited from his fathergiven the time and opportunity.

The country of the worsening of the crisis - a bloody battle between police and demonstrators which is closely monitored throughout the world - would seem to be a chance to stave off violence with restraint or even bold reforms, never had a path of his father. But as dead frames and alarming disappearance of dissident figures increase, time seems to be missing. International pressure is growing, and is therefore the indignation has inspired its violent repression.

Mr. Al-Assad could still succeed to quell unrest, diplomats and analysts say. But to do this, it would have to realize the hopes once placed in him when he inherited the power of his father 11 years and to cope with his own family, which controls the Syria brutal security apparatus and seems to be intensely for continued repression. At least 120 people were killed since Friday, the bloodiest day of the insurgency in five weeks.

In the past two days, the mixed signals have emerged on what path he will take. On the one hand, Mr. Assad alluded to a willingness to adopt greater reforms that those announced last week, when it lifted officially entitled the Syria draconian emergency powers. But there has been dark warnings more severe repression as well. In the notoriously opaque political environment of the Syria, it is impossible to say how the President is supported.

"This is the moment of truth for Bashar al-Assad," said Jean-Pierre Filiu, visiting professor at Columbia University who has written extensively on the Syria. "It potentially has the ability to impose reforms on his own Baath party, but he has the will to do so."

The consequences of his decision could be memorable, perhaps more so than in any other revolts yet seen in the Middle East. The Egypt and the Tunisia, the Syria is houses a defensive checkerboard religious and ethnic minorities and many fear that the end of 40 years of the Assad family dynasty could free murders brutal revenge, and the struggles for power. Chaos could easily spill over to the borders of the Syria, to the nearby Lebanon and beyond.

The administration of Obama already accused Iran to help support Mr. Assad. If the Syria fell, it would mark a striking setback to the theocratic regime in Tehran, which has depended on the Syria for its influence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and elsewhere. Yet fatality of the Iran - Israel, the United States and Saudi Arabia - are also deeply disturbed by the prospect of a change of regime in Syria, which could trigger a messy Iraq-style civil conflict.

Even if Mr. Assad survives, unrest is likely to have profound implications for the Middle East policy, say some analysts. "Our policy Syria together for two and a half years has been based on getting the Syria and Israel return to the peace table," said Andrew Tabler, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Now that Bashar accused Israel and the United States of plotting this challenge for him, it will be even more difficult for him to do so."

In a sense, the crisis is now Mr. Assad is the same as that defined his years in power: again and again, he inspired hopes, both at home and abroad, only to disappoint the. Western leaders courted him, in the hope it democratise his country, to make peace with Israel, and stop supporting militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Syrian Liberals saw a brief "Damascus Spring" of greater openness after his accession to the throne, but she soon disappeared. His personal style has helped promote these illusions. Unlike his father stern, Hafez Al-Assad, who took power in a coup in 1970, Bashar al-Assad seems calm and almost meek. He had studied ophthalmology in London and had an elegant woman, British-born. He is fluent in English and French and bed widely.

Even until in recent weeks, "there was a tendency to see as distinct from the regime, he could take his role," said an analyst based in the Syria, who spoke the condition of anonymity. But this patience seems to have made financial demands for reform were transformed into requests to terminate the Assad Government, something of far.

As other autocrats, Mr. Assad may be amortized the reality of the uprising; The Syrian State media have portrayed it as the work of agents provocateurs from Israel, Saudi Arabia and even the Lebanon. Some diplomats who know personally say they believe Mr. Assad understands what is happening - and what to do to stop it - but is too hesitant or too timid, to pay.

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Syrian army "attacks protest hub" - BBC News

Last updated at 07: 26 GMT, April 25, 2011 Deraa has been at the epicentre of recent protests in the army of the Syria Syria launched an attack against the city of the South of Deraa, with tanks used for the return of the troopsAccording to activists and non-verified video footage.

An activist was quoted as saying that security forces were "pulling in all directions", and there were unconfirmed victims.

Deraa is where Syrian anti-Government protests began five weeks ago.

New aggression follows reports of repression and arrests in other regions of the country.

An activist for the rights of said human Reuters news agency that security forces had also stormed the suburbs of Damascus in the Duma Monday, to open fire on civilians and stop dozens of people.

Security forces are supposed to be rounding up suspected organizers protest despite the lifting of the State of emergency, last week.

Demonstrators started to call for political reforms last month, but many require now that President Bashar al-Assad resign.

Reported the at least 350 people were killed.

"Cut power".

Activist Abdullah al-Harriri told the AFP news agency that hundreds of security personnel were entered Adraa Monday, supported by tanks and other armoured vehicles.

Continue reading the main story Owen Bennett Jones BBC News, Beirut

These last days of opposition activists have been describing Adraa as liberated territory and two members of Parliament and a local religious leader resigned Saturday to protest against the massacre of demonstrators there.

By sending troops, the Government has demonstrated its determined to regain control of the city. Elsewhere in Syria, in uniform and plainclothes security personnel were patrolling through the streets of towns and villages.

Last week in an attempt to appease protesters, the Government lifted a State of emergency. That is not to stop protests and since the Government uses force to suppress demands for greater freedom.

"Men are pulling in all directions and advancing behind the armour which is their protection", he said.

"The electricity is cut off and telephone communications are virtually impossible."

A resident said diffuser Arabic al-Jazeera that five people had been killed.

Foreign journalists have been prevented from entering the country, making it difficult to verify the information.

But the BBC Owen Bennett-Jones at the nearby Lebanon, explains the use of tanks was not reported elsewhere in Syria and would mark an increase in the Government's response to protests.

According to the latest reports that the Government is absolutely determined to use force to suppress the protest movement, he said.

Death by Jabla

These days activists of the opposition have been describing Adraa as liberated territory and two members of Parliament and a local religious leader resigned Saturday to protest against the massacre of demonstrators there.

Deraa has had the most victims of any city in Syria.

Earlier, at least four people were reported killed in Jabla, a town in the Northwest of 80,000, after security forces opened fire there later Sunday.

At least 95 people were reportedly killed the Syria Friday and another 12 summers Saturday, as a lament came under fire.

Authorities have reacted erratically demonstrations - sometimes promising to allow more democracy and freedoms and other times open fire on demonstrators.

Human Rights Watch campaign group called for an investigation of the United Nations and the international sanctions against the Syria after the massacres of Friday.

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Syrian Security Forces storm cities, witnesses Say

Beirut (AP) - troops Syrian armoured vehicles and tanks stormed the city in the South of Dara Monday at the start and opened fire, the latest crackdown on a five-week uprising against the regime authoritarian President Bashar al-Assadwitnesses and activists said.

DARA has become an epicenter of the protest movement, including the coup in the city more of a month ago after the authorities arrested a group of teenagers who scribbled anti-Government graffiti on a wall. Since then, more than 300 people have been killed across the country as anti-Government protests have increased.

Activists posted social media images of what they said soldiers initially fired Monday throughout Dara. The sound of heavy artillery fire punctuates sequences, as well as the laboured breathing, afraid of activist film footage. The activist resumed the date, place and said: "the forces of the army come Dara." They bombard the city of Dara. ?

Also Monday, witnesses said Syrian security forces have been opening fire on the outskirts of Damascus.

No there was no immediate word on victims and Dara telephone lines appeared to have been cut.

The video can not be verified independently, and all the witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The Syria has prohibited almost all the foreign media and limited access to areas of problem since the start of the insurgency, making it almost impossible to obtain independent assessments of the situation on the ground.

But the rise of violence in Syria - more than 120 people have been killed since Friday - brought calls from the watchdog group Human Rights Watch for an investigation of the United Nations.

The Syrian security forces have arrested dozens of opposition activists since Saturday as authorities turned to locate raids to suppress the revolt.

Strategy, described by a rights activist, appeared designed to host the leaders of the opposition and showing that the State's ability to perform radical arrests has not changed despite the abolition of emergency laws almost 50 years last week.

The raids were concentrated in the capital Damascus and the Centre of the city of Homs, a fertile ground for demonstrations against the authoritarian regime of Assad, said Ammar Qurabi, head of the national organization for the rights of man in Syria.

"These people are not being orders in a legal way." They are either removed, "said Qurabi, asserting that the plainclothes security officers did not arrest official mandates."

Qurabi has no complete figures for detainees, but said at least 20 people were arrested in Homs.

A resident in the suburbs of Damascus in the Duma, said at least five people was placed in detention and authorities cut the phone and Internet lines.

Assad criticized most of the unrest on "foreign plot" and armed thugs trying to sow sectarian strife. Police said 286 SANA State News Agency were wounded since the start of the insurgency. He gave no details.

But may be emerging from the possible cracks within.

Two members left the provincial Council in the southern region of Dara, which has the highest death toll in the country. The resignation came a day after two legislators and a religious leader of Dara has also turned his back on Al-Assad the rejection on the murders.

Internal antagonisms have added resonance since opposition figures were imprisoned or exiled during the 40 years of the Assad family dynasty.

___

Associated Press writer Diaa Hadid in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Syrian forces fire at funeral of demonstrators

The number of deaths since the demonstrations Friday, one of the bloodiest days in the so-called Arab spring, was passed by Saturday with 109 people, a number that says militants was likely to rise more than bodies have been returned to their families. Another group said 114 people were killed.

The bloodshed Saturday followed a pattern frequently seen in the tumult that has swept the Arab world. Funerals have often turned into demonstrations, where most were killed by the folded security forces crushing of dissent against the authoritarian leaders. Pale compared to the number of deaths last Saturday killed Friday, he suggested that the country could be entering a prolonged period of unrest as protesters continue to encourage the greatest challenge to four decades of rule Assad family.

Government of President Bashar al-Assad has struggled to cope with agitation, offering concessions which would have been surprising at a time, during the use of violence against those who continue in demonstrations. Although the revolt attracted many in the streets, since it began March 15, he has yet to reach the critical mass of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. However, organizers say that they believe that the bloodshed can attract more people into the fold of the uprising.

A possible sign of cracks in the facade of the Government, two members of the powerless Parliament largely the Syria resigned Saturday. The two, Khalil al-Rifai and Nasser al-Hariri, two independent legislators in Dara', where the uprising began, said Al Jazeera that they were resigned to protest the killing of demonstrators.

Wissam tariff, the General Director of Insan, a human rights group, said that the fired live ammunition to lament after security forces they buried their dead. The funeral soon became demonstrations, calls to the fall of Mr. Al-Assad, who has inherited from his father, Hafez, in 2000. Such requests, uttered publicly, once unbelievable and serve as a marker of outrage is how to overcome fear in the repressive State.

Mr. tariff said 11 people were killed in the towns on the outskirts of Damascus, where some of the worst bloodshed was reported Friday: Duma, Barza, Maadamiah and Qabon. Other people were reportedly killed in Azra summers, but the militants did not yet confirm their names.

In S123, a witness who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals said that at least 1,000 were lament of the fire that they were preparing to bury the four men and two children, a 7 years and 14 others. The witness said security forces aimed directly the lament, which many sought refuge in the nearby Al-Salam mosque.

He said that the shooting lasted at least 10 minutes. Religious leaders inside the mosque pleaded speakers for security forces prevent fired them on demonstrators armed and called medical aid for the wounded.

"They shot directly to the people and all hell broke lose", the witness said. "We could hear the voices of children and of people screaming frantically." We do not know how many were killed, but we have heard a saying by telephone that four of its neighbours were killed and several wounded. ?

In the Duma, another town on the outskirts of Damascus, at least 1500 lament walk of the great mosque of the cemetery, a witness said. Approach a government building, police fired on them, in dams which lasted three hours.

"I saw people killed in front of me", the witness said. "People were on the ground wounded and could not help, help, or obtain their.".

His voice turned angry. "How many people can take, we don't know," he said. "They won't get killed every day and just keep watch.". If we are going to finance the reforms of President with our lives, then we don't want his reforms. ?

The violence Friday began after noon prayers, when thousands gathered in protest. Their demands have increased since the start of the insurgency: calls to reform requests that President Assad resign.

At least two towns, protesters destroyed Mr. Assad photo and statues that shipwrecked of his father.

Employees of the New York Times contributed to Damascus and Beirut (Lebanon).

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The Syrian authorities stop the Figure of the Opposition popular, thrown of emergency right - voice of America

VOA News, April 20, 2011 demonstrators holding banners during a demonstration the port Syrian town of Banias, April 19, 2011

The Syrian authorities arrested a hours of figure of popular opposition having passed a Bill lifting State of emergency almost 50 years.

Rights activists say that Mahmoud Issa was abducted from his home in the Centre of the city of Homs late Tuesday by the political security of the Syria services.

Earlier in the day, the Government promulgated a law putting an end to the State of emergency, dissolved a security court that tries to political prisoners and passed a law requiring a permit for demonstrations.

The US State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, says that Washington is concerned Syria may have replaced a restrictive law with another.? He urged Damascus to more broad democratic reform in place.

Despite the new legislation, thousands of demonstrators gathered in cities and towns across the Syria Tuesday to protest against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.? At least two people were killed in clashes in Homs where demonstrators held a sit-in in the main square of the city.

The Syrian authorities have said that their country is the target of a conspiracy. They accuse violence by gangs armed and infiltrated provided with the weapons of the Iraq and the Lebanon.

The Assad family held Syria since 1970, when the father of the current President, Hafez Al-Assad, became head of State. He died in 2000, leaving Bashar al-Assad to lead the country.

The Act prohibited emergency events, restricted media and allowed the eavesdropping.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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Democracy for the Syria!

20 04-2011 hamad part 1 of 3 (Oman)

After the exposure of WikiLeaks, Syrian authorities will arrest any suspect opposition which have been subsidized by foreign countries to reverse the recent Syrian Government. This shameful scandals will clarify which has provided some protesters by force of arms and funds which will give good pretext of Syria Government to arrest who violate the law and threaten its stability.

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Syrian activists together after the lethal repression

Despite promises of reform, the Syrian security forces arrested Mahmoud Issa, a prominent opposition figure and former political prisoner, the hours Tuesday after the cabinet approved a Bill to cancel the State of emergency.

"The city is still mourning its dead", said the activist policy who gave his name as Abu Haydar, speaking by telephone from Homs. "There are security everywhere, never corner of the city and it is not known what will happen, but we are preparing for demonstrations Friday."

On Tuesday, the Government attempted to calm the demonstrators to statements of sweeping reform while also issuing harsh threats of retaliation if demonstrations were not in the end, as one of the most repressive countries in the Arab world has difficulty to dampen the most serious challenge to the rule 40 of the Assad family.

The mixture of concession and coercion came hours after the armed police of Earth and the other forces of an authoritarian State are marshaled to crush one of the largest gatherings yet by demonstrators bent on the staging of an Egyptian style sit-in in the third largest city of the SyriaHoms. At least two people died, said demonstrators, the Government has authorized the place.

Events punctuated by turbulent day in a month uprising which, as the Egypt, has the potential to rework the arithmetic of a Middle East rocked with dissent. While the Syria does not have the Egyptian population or wealth of the Libya, his influence has long been strong in the region, held its location, its alliance with the Iran and its status as a maker of Kings in the Lebanon.

The complexity of its prestige means that the Government of President Bashar al-Assad is defenders in the most divergent places - the Hezbollah Shiite Muslim movement in the Lebanon in some neighbourhoods in Israel.

The reforms have been promised Saturday by Mr. Assad, but had not yet be articulated until Tuesday, when the Government announced the repeal of emergency legislation in place since the party Baath seized power in 1963. The repeal must still be approved by the Parliament or Mr. Assad, but which is equivalent to a formality. So its real impact: the Government has yet to show any real sign of ease its relentless grip.

Since the beginning of the revolt, the Government has vacillated between repression and suggestions of compromise, a formula which proved disastrous for the strong men in Tunisia and Egypt. But the combination Tuesday was more remarkable for divided how it was.

Even though the demonstrators buried those killed in Homs, the long-promised reforms ostensibly granted civil liberties, decrease, the power of the police and abolishes draconian courts. They legalized "peaceful demonstrations" - coded language for those approved by the Government - as the Ministry of the Interior has warned in a statement made by the official news agency, would take advantage of the total width of the Act against any other form.

Echoing the Egypt and the Tunisia, reforms, on paper at least, contributed much to meet the original demands of the demonstrators, who have only grown in depth and scope as the bloodshed has worsened.

"The street is a world and the President and the regime are in another, said Wissam tariff, Executive Director of Insan, a group of rights of Syrian man, reached by telephone."

Ads follow one another the Government crackdown on protests, this time in Homs, an industrial town near the Lebanese border and the location of a famous Crusader Castle.

For days, the Syria organizers have sought to reproduce the experience of the Tahrir square in Cairo, where hundreds of thousands gathered to demand the end of the rule of the three-decade of President Hosni Mubarak. The place has become a symbol and an instrument of demonstrations that finally forced to resign in February.

Organizers envisioned as its equivalent Abbassiyeen Square, a critical artery in the capital, Damascus, but were thwarted by security forces. Some organizers said they turn instead to Homs, where the funeral Monday for 14 demonstrators killed a day earlier drew thousands.

Some demonstrators said the security forces seem taken taken aback by the crowd, which grew throughout the day number and angry. Some shouted "A sit-in, a dining room, until the Government fell!". "". "please go", a banner implored Mr. Assad. Mr. tariff cited witnesses who said protesters had served tea and sandwiches as a cold night fell, and organizers said mattresses and tents were carted so protesters could be used in travel.

Security forces made several attempts to disperse the crowds, but surrenders until after midnight. Then, demonstrators said, a mixture of soldiers, police officers and security forces surrounded the place and attacked the demonstrators with tear gas, and real bullets after the crowd was reduced to about 2,000.

Nada Bakri and Hwaida Saad has contributed reporting from Beirut, Katherine Zoepf in New York and the employees of The New York Times in Damascus, Syria.

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Middle East launches in the Syrian city of locked - Aljazeera.net

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Gunfire in locked-down Syrian city - Middle East - Al Jazeera English .qodLinker{border-width:0px;border-style:none;}.qodLinker img{border-width:0px;border-style:none;} NewsIn DepthProgrammesVideoBlogsBusinessWeatherSportWatch Live AfricaAmericasAsia-PacificCentral & South AsiaEuropeMiddle EastFocusOpinionFeaturesInteractiveSpotlightBriefingsYour ViewsRiz KhanWitnessInside StoryListening PostPeople & PowerMore??Counting the CostNewsThe Business Blog??? Middle East Gunfire in locked-down Syrian city Reports of shooting as thousands protest in Homs while Syrian government claims country is facing "armed insurrection". Last Modified: 18 Apr 2011 22:09 Email Print Share Send Feedback

Gunfire has been heard in the Syrian city of Homs where thousands of anti-government protesters had gathered in the main square, a day after activists said at least 25 people were killed there.

An activist on the ground told Al Jazeera that security forces had opened fire on protesters. At least two people are reported injured while tear gas has also been used, according to Al Jazeera's correspondent in Damascus, Cal Perry.

Homs has been shut down by the army with three rings of checkpoints surrounding the city, our correspondent added. Security forces had given protesters until 2.30am to clear the square, but gunfire was reported at 2.15am.

Most of the square had been cleared with people scattering across the city, according to our correspondent. But protesters are afraid to go to hospitals, he says.

"They are afraid if they go to the hospitals the security forces will be waiting for them there and they will end up in detention," says Perry.

The latest protests against president Bashar al-Assad's 10-year rule come as Syria's interior ministry on Monday night said the country was facing an "armed insurrection".

The government blames armed gangs for the unrest and says several members of the security forces have been killed and wounded in days of violence.

"Some of these groups have called for armed insurrection under the motto of Jihad to set up a Salafist state," the ministry said in a statement. "What they did is an ugly crime severely punished by law. Their objective is to spread terror across Syria"

A protester who gave his name as Rami earlier told Al Jazeera that thousands people were staging a sit-in in the centre of Homs and would "continue to protest until the regime is overthrown".

Suhair Atassi, a prominent rights activist, said 10,000 people were at the square late on Monday night.

Some tents were raised and protesters said they had renamed the Al-Saa (Clock) Square 'Tahrir Square', in reference to the focal point of the uprising in Egypt which led to the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Click here for more of our special coverage

Earlier in the day, thousands attended the funerals for protesters killed in Homs, shouting slogans against Assad, who succeeded his father as president in 2000, continuing an era of Baath Party rule stretching back to a 1963 coup.

Witnesses said mourners chanted "From alleyway to alleyway, from house to house, we want to overthrow you, Bashar," and "Either freedom or death,?the people want to topple this regime".

Monday's protests were the largest to hit Syria's third largest city since?protests in the country began?one month ago.

"I'm 45 years old. It's the first time in my life I break the barrier of silence, the first time I feel freedom," a protester who gave his name as Abu Omar told Al Jazeera.

"The regime does not wish us to enjoy freedom or dignity. For decades we've been ruled by an iron fist, by the force of weapon."

Demonstrations were also reported in the southern city of Daraa, in the Barzeh district of the capital, Damascus, and in Ain al-Arab in the mainly Kurdish north. About 1,500 people gathered at the Shaghour bridge between Aleppo and Latakia in the morning.

Homs violence

A?protester in Homs told Al Jazeera that protesters were killed after evening prayers on Sunday when a group of around 40?demonstrators gathered outside the Bab al-Sibaa mosque chanting "freedom".

The protester, who gave his name as Abu Haider, said seven cars pulled up to the protesters and men in civilian clothes jumped out and opened fire on the crowd without warning.

Pictures were posted online of people praying in
a square in Homs on Monday [Twitpic-Shantal7afana]

"First we were calling for reforms, now we're calling for regime change,"?he said. "No one will accept the death of the martyrs."

The nearby town of Talbiseh, where activists said five people were killed on Sunday, was sealed off by government forces on Monday.

Walid al-Muallem, Syria's foreign minister,?met foreign ambassadors earlier in the day and?told them that reforms are on their way and that peaceful protest will be tolerated, but?not destruction of government properties and other disruptive behaviour.

The latest developments came two days after Assad said Syria's decades-long emergency laws would be lifted within a week and also promised a number of other reforms.

Despite the apparent concessions, nationwide protests were held on?Sunday, which was Syria's Independence Day, commemorating the departure of the last French soldier 65 years ago.

Source: Al Jazeera Email Print Share Send Feedback Topics in this articlePeopleBashar al-AssadAbu HaiderAbu OmarSuhair AtassiSalafiHosni MubarakRamiCountrySyriaEgyptCityHomsDaraaAleppoTalbisehLatakiaDamascus Featured on Al Jazeera Nigeria: Ripe for a WikiLeaks revolution? Leaked cables helped expose high-level corruption, but will those revelations impact upcoming elections? Libya after the NATO invasion There can be no quick fix for a Libya caught between a loose-cannon despot and an opportunistic Western intervention. China's interests in Gaddafi Huge oil and financial deals play major part in Beijing's support for Libya's despot and halt to foreign intervention. Recognising Palestine? The efforts of the Palestinian Authority to push for statehood are nothing more than an elaborate farce, writer says.

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.dsq-toolbar-logo { display:none !important;} .dsq-item-trackback { display:none !important;} #dsq-num-posts { color: #FB9D04 !important;} #dsq-realtime-status { color: #FB9D04 !important;} .dsq-request-user-logout { color: #FB9D04 !important; font-weight: bold; } .dsq-comment-header-meta-wrapper { color: Navy !important;} .powered-by { display:none !important;} #dsq-content-stub { display:none !important; } Top News Accordion " style="background-color:<%=HeaderColor()%>;"> Top News Gunfire in locked-down Syrian city UN envoy secures lifeline for Misurata Nigerian president urges calm after poll Sri Lanka war-crimes claims 'credible' Former Saleh allies form new party in Yemen News Middle East Gunfire in locked-down Syrian city Former Saleh allies form new party in Yemen Deadly car bombs hit Baghdad Green Zone Dubai hosts anti-piracy conference Egypt antiquities chief faces jail time What's Hot What's Hot Viewed Emailed 7 Days Gunfire in locked-down Syrian city Japan plant radiation 'too high for crews' China's bad growth bet UN envoy secures lifeline for Misurata Pentagon clears McChrystal of wrongdoing The disappeared of Kashmir Donald Trump: Potential president? Rupert Murdoch's Watergate Inside Gbago's former residence China's interests in Gaddafi China's interests in Gaddafi BP anniversary: Toxicity, suffering and death Israeli town rallies against African refugees Recognising Palestine? Israel bias Cantor-productive in Washington Rethinking Germany: From nuclear to NATO US public supports Palestine statehood Pop goes Islam Peru election: No country 'left' behind Egypt antiquities chief faces jail time China's interests in Gaddafi American radical Unveiling French hypocrisy It's Arab and it's personal China's interests in Gaddafi Japan raises nuclear alert to highest level Unveiling French hypocrisy Libyan rebels resist Ajdabiya assault Libyan rebels resist Ajdabiya assault Libya rebels repel offensives on Misurata Opinion China's bad growth betNouriel RoubiniDonald Trump: Potential president?Cliff SchecterGoldstone: Perceptions and realitiesDaoud KuttabThe geopolitical message from LibyaBrahma ChellaneyPolicing content on social media sitesJillian C. YorkIsrael bias Cantor-productive in WashingtonMJ RosenbergWickets and warinessShashi TharoorThe sun will rise again in JapanYuriko KoikePeru election: No country 'left' behindGreg GrandinSyria's teenaged prisoners of conscienceMichele ZackheimGoogle: A universal library?Peter SingerRethinking Germany: From nuclear to NATORichard FalkObama and Libya: Not 'why', but 'how'Andrew J. BacevichSaif Gaddafi and meDani RodrikIt's Arab and it's personalMarwan BisharaUS public supports Palestine statehoodMJ RosenbergThe shield of innocenceTarak BarkawiThe shifting zeitgeist of the 'Arab Spring'Mark LeVine Free our journalist

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