Two die as Syrian protests continue
Syrian security forces have opened fire on tens of thousands of anti-government protesters, killing at least two people, reports said.
Activists chose “patience and determination” as the theme of today’s protests across Syria.
Another theme was solidarity with a renowned political cartoonist who was badly beaten by masked gunmen on Thursday.
The protests came on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, a time many protesters hoped would serve as a breaking point for the authoritarian regime of President Bashar Assad. Instead, the government’s crackdown has intensified dramatically.
“We are here to tell the regime that nothing is finished, nothing will finish and we will not stay at home like you want us to,” a protester said by telephone from the central city of Homs, where he said thousands poured into the streets.
Human rights groups say Assad’s forces have killed more than 2,000 people since the uprising against his autocratic rule erupted in mid-March.
In Hama, hometown of political cartoonist Ali Ferzat, a banner read: “Ali Ferzat, we are with you till death.”
Ferzat, 60, was recovering in hospital today after his attackers broke his hands and dumped him on a road outside Damascus.
Ferzat earned international recognition and the respect of many Arabs with stinging caricatures that infuriated dictators including Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and, particularly in recent months, Syria’s autocratic Assad family.
The Local Co-ordination Committees, an activist group that helps organise the protests, said at least two people were killed today in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour.
Protests also were reported in Idlib province near Turkey and the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, along with the flash point cities of Homs and Hama.
