Syrian forces fire on protesters, 9 killed

NICOSIA, June 24 (AFP): Syrian security forces opened fire Friday on anti-regime rallies killing at least nine protesters, three of them in the capital Damascus, human rights activists said.

The violence came as thousands of protesters took to the streets across Syria after the weekly Muslim prayers calling for the fall of the autocratic regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The demonstrations were in response to a call by the Facebook group Syrian Revolution 2011, one of the motors of the protests, under the banner, "Fall of legitimacy."

"Security forces tried to break up a rally calling for the fall of the regime with tear gas before opening fire" killing three people and injuring 25 others, an activist in the Damascus neighbourhood of Barzeh said, reached by telephone.

They also opened fire on demonstrators in the town of Kiswah south of Damascus, killing at least five people, another activist told AFP.

"Demonstrators left the mosque after Friday prayers and marched for a few minutes until security forces opened fire to disperse them, killing five people and wounding six others," rights activist Mohammad Enad Suleiman said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also reported "one death" in the central city of Homs.

Meanwhile the official SANA news agency reported that "several members of the security forces were hit by gunfire in Kiswah."

Fridays have been a focal point for protesters since the start of pro-democracy demonstrations in mid-March, with Syrians taking to the streets on the weekly day of rest after midday Muslim prayers.

Syrian rights groups say that more than 1,300 people have been killed and while 10,000 have been arrested in the regime's brutal crackdown against dissent since the protests-now in their fourth month-erupted.

The Facebook page said Friday's protests should send a strong message to Assad that he and his regime are no longer legitimate and must go.

"Bashar is no longer my president and his government no longer represents me," it said.

View the original article here