More Syria deaths as half a million flood Hama (AFP)

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-regime protests on Friday, killing at least 13 people, two of them in the capital Damascus, activists said.

The continuing crackdown on opponents of Bashar al-Assad came as the president's regime accused US Ambassador Robert Ford, who had visited the city, of inciting violence.

Opposition activists speaking to AFP separately by telephone reported five deaths in the central city of Homs, two in the capital's commercial neighbourhood Medan and six in the area of Dmeir, east of Damascus.

In Homs, "at least five people were killed in the Al-Khalidya neighbourhood by security forces who opened fire against demonstrators," said Abdel Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for Human Rights.

"Security forces shot dead two demonstrators in the neighbourhood of Medan in Damascus," east of the capital," he added.

London-based Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said six people were killed in the area of Dmeir and that at least 24 people had been injured in Homs, some of them gravely.

Rahman said at least 450,000 Syrians rallied after Friday prayers in Hama under the banner "No to dialogue" with Assad's regime.

The Hama demonstrators reiterated their "refusal to dialogue with the regime and called for its fall," he said.

Both US envoy Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier visited Hama on Thursday.

On Friday, the regime accused Ford of meeting "saboteurs" there and inciting anti-Assad protests.

"The US ambassador met with saboteurs in Hama ... who erected checkpoints, cut traffic and prevented citizens from going to work," an interior ministry statement said.

"The ambassador incited these saboteurs to violence, to demonstrate and to refuse dialogue" with the government, it added.

The foreign ministry called Ford's presence in Hama "obvious proof of the implication of the United States in the ongoing events, and of their attempts to increase (tensions), which damage Syria's security and stability."

In Paris, foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Chevallier went to Hama "to show France's engagement with the victims, the civilian population."

"In particular, he went to one of the main hospitals in the city where he met medical teams, the wounded and their families.

"France repeats its concern over the fate of the inhabitants of the city of Hama, and its condemnation of the violence being carried out by Syrian authorities against the protesters and the civilian population."

Elsewhere, security forces used live rounds against protesters in the coastal city of Banias.

"Protesters left the mosques in the southern districts of the city and dozens were arrested," Abdel Rahman said.

Further north on the coast, in Latakia, more than 1,000 protesters were dispersed as they left Al-Rahman mosque, an activist there told AFP.

"Armed security services came in more than 20 cars, dispersed the protesters and arrested some of them," the activist said.

In Aleppo, a regime stronghold, "thousands of people rallied at Seif al-Dawla and Salheddine. They were attacked by security forces and a pro-regime militia," a witness told AFP.

Protests also took place in Saqba and Jdeidet Artuz, while 7,000 protesters filed through Qatana north of Damascus, activists said.

In the northern town of Raqqa, "security forces fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse protesters, at least one of whom was hurt," said an activist who requested anonymity.

Thousands also marched in Syria's Kurdish regions.

Between 4,000-5,000 took to the streets of Qamlishi, as did thousands more in Amuda, expressing solidarity with Hama and calling for the fall of the regime, rights activist Radif Mustapha said.

Before Friday's protests, the Facebook group Syrian Revolution 2011 had urged "No to dialogue: What dialogue (is possible) when blood has been spilled, while the towns are besieged? The people want the fall of the regime."

It added: "No to dialogue with the assassins, the still-warm blood of the martyrs is calling us. We are legitimacy... dialogue with the regime is useless."

Residents of Hama and Homs staged a general strike ahead of Friday's protests, according to Abdel Rahman, while Syrian Revolution 2011 called for the boycotting of businesses that trade with Assad's regime.

"Don't pay for the bullets that are being used to kill us", the group urged its online followers, also calling on activists to march on the Turkish border on July 16 in support of "the refugees, exiles and victims" of the unrest.

Rights groups say that more than 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people arrested by security forces since mid-March when the anti-government protests erupted.

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ND governor: Flood plan 'holding up very well' (AP)

By DALE WETZEL and JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press Dale Wetzel And John Flesher, Associated Press – 17?mins?ago

MINOT, N.D. – The Souris River neared its crest Saturday in Minot, where city officials hoped to ride out the high water without losing more than the thousands of homes already damaged by flooding.

The river had been expected to peak Saturday evening at some 8 1/2 feet above major flood stage, but it appeared to be leveling off hours earlier as it approached 6 1/2 feet over that mark.

Damage was already widespread, with Mayor Curt Zimbelman reporting more than 4,000 homes had been flooded in an evacuation zone of neighborhoods nearest the river. About 11,000 people were ordered out earlier this week.

Sgt. 1st Class David Dodds, a spokesman for North Dakota's National Guard, said the situation had "kind of stabilized" Saturday. The Souris' channel wasn't getting any wider.

"The fact that more homes aren't being engulfed or being touched by the water, that's the one silver lining if you can even say there is one," Dodds said.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple said he was encouraged.

"It looks to me like, barring any rainfall ... the (flood-fighting) plan looks like it's holding up very well," he said.

City spokesman Dean Lenertz said updated estimates of the flood's toll were being prepared. The city's water, sewer and electric power systems were still working. Workers labored to keep the Broadway Bridge, a major north-south thoroughfare, from being overwhelmed, a possibility that would divide the city in half.

Zimbelman and others had fretted about rain in the forecast, but the National Weather Service said the storms didn't appear to be widespread or long-lasting.

Fed by heavy rains upstream and dam releases that have accelerated in recent days, the Souris surged past a 130-year-old record Friday and kept going.

Dalrymple spoke Saturday to flood evacuees at shelters at Minot State University's Dome, an indoor track and basketball arena, and at the City Auditorium. Thirty-seven people stayed at Minot State's shelter Friday night, and 237 people bedded down at the auditorium, the governor said.

The Minot State shelter was virtually deserted Saturday morning. One evacuee dozed among rows of cots lined up neatly on the dome's indoor track.

Dalrymple and his wife, Betsy, listened to Les and Jacque Younger, 30-year Minot residents whose home had been dry just a few days ago.

"We have about a foot, I think, to a foot and a half before (the flood water) goes to the second floor, and that's what I'm trying to save," Jacque Younger said. The couple, who had lived in their home four years, said they also lost a van to the water.

Dalrymple noted that although thousands had been displaced, relatively few were staying in shelters.

"It just seems like people are so well grounded here with, like, friends and family," Dalrymple said. "They're used to asking people to support each other, and they find places to go."

Minot State cancelled classes next week. President David Fuller, who was biking around campus to check on conditions, said classes wouldn't resume until after July 4 and only if the Broadway Bridge was open.

"Even then, we're going to have to reassess to see how that's going to impact the students' work in their classes," Fuller said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency pledged assistance to flood victims in Burleigh and Ward counties, which include Minot and Bismarck, the state capital, which has been damaged by Missouri River flooding. Sens. Kent Conrad and John Hoeven and Rep. Rick Berg had pushed for the aid in a call to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and said they hoped it would be extended to other flood-ravaged counties.

Hoeven said a helicopter flight over the Souris valley showed damage to smaller cities around Minot.

In nearby Burlington, more than half of the town's 1,000 residents left late this week to escape the Souris. In Velva, a small town about 20 miles downstream of Minot, emergency levees were being built in anticipation of an expected crest on Tuesday.

Sawyer, a town of about 350 people, was under a mandatory evacuation order Saturday after the Souris flowed over the main dike around daybreak. National Guard soldiers worked on a secondary levee. Mayor Cy Kotaska said about three homes had been flooded.

The National Guard activated 870 members for the crisis. Minot is best known as home to an Air Force base responsible for 150 Minuteman III missiles in underground launch silos scattered over 8,500 square miles in northwest North Dakota.

Col. S.L. Davis, commander of the 91st Missile Wing, said there was some "localized flooding" at a handful of missiles sites because of the wet spring and summer. But he said the silos are designed to safely handle some water and protective measures were taken at a few sites similar to what's done in preparation for spring runoff from snowmelt.

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