Activists: Syrians detain 3,000 in town in 3 days (AP)

BEIRUT – Syrian troops going house to house have detained more than 3,000 people in the past three days in a rebellious town that government forces recently retook in some of the worst fighting of the 6-month-old uprising, activists said Monday.

The activist group Local Coordination Committees said fighting has stopped in the central town of Rastan, which the government retook Saturday. The military operation there left dozens dead and more than 3,000 in custody, the group said.

A Rastan-based activist confirmed the number, telling The Associated Press by telephone that the detainees are being held at a cement factory, as well as some schools and the Sports Club, a massive, four-story compound.

"Ten of my relatives have been detained," said the activist, who asked that he be identified only by his first name, Hassan, for fear of retaliation. He said was he speaking from hiding in Rastan.

"The situation in the town is miserable," he said, adding that the population of some 70,000 was heavily bombed for five days starting Tuesday when the army launched an offensive.

Syrian activists say the fighting in Rastan pitted the Syrian military against hundreds of army defectors who sided with the anti-regime protesters calling for President Bashar Assad's ouster. The clashes in Rastan were among the worst the country has seen since the uprising began in mid-March and raised fears Syria is sliding toward a Libyan-style civil war.

Rami Abdel-Rahman, who heads the London-based Syrian Human Rights Organization, said many people have been arrested in Rastan, but the numbers are difficult to confirm. He said the number could be between 500 and 2,000.

Communications with Rastan have been cut for the past few days and were spotty Monday. The Syrian government has banned foreign journalists and placed heavy restrictions on local media coverage, making it difficult to independently verify events on the ground.

Hassan said that as of Sunday, the regime brought thousands of workers to Rastan to clean the streets and rebuild damaged areas in what appeared to be an attempt to cover the damage caused by intense shelling. He added that food was also brought into the town.

Syrian state-media said troops took control of Rastan after hunting down "armed terrorists" holed up inside. But the fighting there highlighted the increasingly militarized nature of an uprising started months ago by peaceful protesters.

The uprising began in mid-March amid a wave of anti-government protests in the Arab world that have so far toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Assad has reacted with deadly force that the U.N. estimates has left some 2,700 people dead.

Also Monday, funeral processions were held for the 21-year-old son of Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric, who was killed a day earlier in an ambush in a restive northern area.

The cleric, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, is considered a loyal supporter of Assad's regime. He told hundreds attending the funeral at a mosque in the northern city of Aleppo that the opposition should stop working against Syria from abroad.

"Come and say whatever you want here and if anyone rejects it, I will be with you in the opposition," said Hassoun, his voice shaking, in an apparent reference to steps taken by Assad to allow the formation of political parties and promises of free elections. "You want freedom, you want justice? Then come here and build it with us in Syria."

Hassoun, who has echoed regime claims that the unrest is the result of a foreign conspiracy, blamed fatwas or religious edicts by clerics living abroad for the death of his son. He did not name the clerics or say where they were based.

"My brothers who were misguided and carried arms, you should have assassinated me because some clerics issued such fatwas. Why did you kill a young man who did nothing and harmed no one," Hassoun, holding back his tears, said in a sermon aired on Syrian TV stations.

In other developments, a member of Syria's outgoing parliament dismissed a broad-based national council set up by the opposition, saying it will not be able to overthrow Assad's regime. Khaled Abboud told the AP that those who announced the formation of the council in Istanbul a day earlier are "deluding themselves."

Syrian dissidents met in Istanbul Sunday and formally established a national council designed to overthrow Assad's regime, which they accused of pushing the country to the brink of civil war. The council appeared to be the most serious step yet to unify a deeply fragmented dissident movement, and many Syrians in the southern and central regions of the country took to the streets in celebration, singing and dancing.

Abboud dismissed the opposition move, saying: "It's a dream that will never come true."

___

Bassem Mroue can be reached at http://twitter.com/bmroue

View the original article here

Syrians call for Assad's death; 11 killed (AP)

By BASSEM MROUE and ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Bassem Mroue And Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press – 24?mins?ago

BEIRUT – Tens of thousands of Syrian protesters shouted for President Bashar Assad's death Friday in a dramatic escalation of their rage and frustration, defying bullets and rooftop snipers after more than a week of intensified military assaults on rebellious cities, activists and witnesses said.

Security forces killed at least 11 protesters, according to human rights groups.

The calls for Assad's execution were a stark sign of how much the protest movement has changed since it erupted in March seeking minor reforms but making no calls for regime change. The protests grew dramatically over the five months that followed, driven in part by anger over the government's bloody crackdown in which rights groups say at least 1,700 civilians have been killed.

But with the regime shrugging off even the most blistering condemnation, the uprising has become a test of endurance as both sides draw on a deep well of energy and conviction. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday urged countries to stop buying Syrian oil and gas or selling the regime weapons, saying those who still do so must "get on the right side of history."

In cities around Syria, protesters chanted, "The people want to execute the president!" during the now-familiar cycle of weekly demonstrations followed by a swift crackdown by the military, security forces and pro-government gunmen who operate on the regime's behalf.

Security forces broke up protests quickly around the capital Damascus, in the central city of Homs and elsewhere, firing bullets and tear gas. Some areas saw only limited demonstrations because soldiers deployed heavily in restive areas.

In a significant show of defiance, some of the largest protests Friday were on the outskirts of the central city of Hama and in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, where government forces seized control in major military offensives during the past week. The fact that protesters still turned out was a signal that Assad's forces cannot terrify protesters into staying home.

However, within Hama, protesters struggled to turn out in great numbers after soldiers clamped down heavily in the streets, witnesses said. Snipers were stationed on rooftops, and troops surrounded mosques and set up checkpoints to head off any marches.

"There are security checkpoints every 200 meters (655 feet), they have lists and they're searching people ... the mosques are surrounded by soldiers," a Hama-based activist told The Associated Press by telephone, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Dozens of soldiers deployed in Hama's Assi Square, which had been the main converging point for hundreds of thousands of protesters in previous weeks, the activist said.

In the central city of Homs, more than a 1,000 soldiers, security agents and plainclothes policemen were deployed in the city's main square.

At least 11 protesters were killed across the country: Five outside the capital, Damascus; one each in Homs and Hama; two in the major northern city Aleppo; one in Deir el-Zour; and one in eastern Idlib province, according to multiple activist groups. Military raids earlier in the day killed at least two people.

"Where are the prisoners, Bashar? Free the prisoners, Bashar!" shouted protesters in the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia, shown in amateur video posted by activists. Another video showed a crowd outside a mosque in the southern city of Daraa hit by clouds of tear gas after they chanted for the downfall of the regime.

The Associated Press could not verify the videos. Syria has banned most foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it impossible to get independent confirmation of the events on the ground.

The government has justified its crackdown by saying it was dealing with terrorist gangs and criminals who were fomenting unrest.

The military offensive reflects Assad's determination to crush the uprising against his rule despite mounting international condemnation, including U.S. and European sanctions.

A flurry of foreign diplomats have rolled through Damascus urging Assad to end a campaign of killing that rights groups say has killed more than 1,700 civilians and several hundred members of the security forces since mid-March.

"We believe that President Assad's opportunity to lead the transition has passed," Jay Carney, spokesman for President Barak Obama, told reporters traveling on Air Force One on Thursday.

But the U.S. and other nations have little power to threaten further isolation or economic punishment of Assad's pro-Iranian regime — unlike in Egypt, where Obama was able to help usher longtime ally Hosni Mubarak out of power.

On Friday, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said the European Union may decide in the next week or two to broaden its sanctions against the Syrian regime and state-run businesses.

Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal has been lobbying his colleagues to expand the EU travel ban on Syrian officials — which now covers 35 people, including Assad — and to target Syria's telecommunications, banking and energy sectors. Syria gets about 28 percent of its revenue from the oil trade.

"We need to cut off the oxygen from the regime through its profitable public enterprises," Rosenthal said on the ministry's Web site.

But the bloody crackdown has continued, along with a nationwide campaign of arrests.

Security forces on Thursday detained Abdul-Karim Rihawi, the Damascus-based head of the Syrian Human Rights League, activists said. A longtime rights activist, Rihawi had been tracking government violations and documenting deaths in Syria.

He was picked up from a cafe in central Damascus along with a journalist who had been interviewing him, according to rights activist Ammar Qurabi.

Italy and France on Friday condemned the arrest and called for his immediate release.

"By its brutal and symbolic character, the arrest of Abdul-Karim Rihawi constitutes a new unacceptable decision by the authorities of Damascus," a French Foreign Ministry statement said.

The Syrian uprising was inspired by the revolts and calls for reform sweeping the Arab world, and activists and rights groups say most of those killed have been unarmed civilians. An aggressive new military offensive that began with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan at the start of August has killed several hundred people in just one week.

___

AP writer Zeina Karam contributed to this report. Bassem Mroue can be reached at http://twitter.com/bmroue and Zeina Karam can be reached at http://twitter.com/zkaram.

View the original article here

Syrians mourn the dead as opposition seeks change (AP)

BEIRUT – Tens of thousands of Syrians shouting "We want freedom!" carried slain protesters through the streets Saturday as opposition figures meeting in Turkey called for a united front to bring down the 40-year ruling dynasty of the Assad family.

Syrian security forces killed at least 28 people Friday during the largest protests since the uprising began more than four months ago, activists said. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets nationwide, but they were met with gunfire and tear gas.

"The regime has kidnapped the entire state, and we want it back," said Haitham al-Maleh, one of Syria's most prominent dissidents, who led Saturday's opposition conference in Istanbul. The 80-year-old lawyer spent years in Syrian prisons for his political activism.

Syria's crackdown on the protests has led to international condemnation and sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that President Bashar Assad had dashed hopes of reform.

"What's happening in Syria is very uncertain and troubling because many of us had hoped that President Assad would make the reforms that were necessary," she said in Istanbul. "The brutality has to stop, there must be a legitimate sincere effort with the opposition to try to make changes."

"Yesterday we witnessed the largest demonstrations to date in Syria, an effort to try to convey directly to the government the pent-up desire of the Syrian people for the kind of reforms that they have been promised," she added.

Activists say the government's crackdown has killed some 1,600 people since March, most of them unarmed protesters. But the regime disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying religious extremists — not true reform-seekers — are behind it.

Saturday's conference was an attempt to form a unified movement that can offer a realistic alternative to Assad, whose supporters argue that he is the only force who can guarantee stability in a region bedeviled by civil wars and religious strife.

Although Assad's regime is shaken, he still draws from a significant well of support from the middle classes, business community and religious minorities.

Still, the uprising appears to be gaining momentum.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that tens of thousands from Damascus and the suburbs held funerals for slain protesters Saturday, carrying the bodies overhead on stretchers and shouting "God is Great!" and "We want freedom!"

Like most witnesses in Syria, they spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Witnesses also said security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the eastern border town of al-Boukamal near Iraq's border, killing at least one protester and wounding others.

State-run Syria TV contested that, however, and said gunmen killed two police officers in al-Boukamal and armed groups stormed a police headquarters and confiscated weapons.

The government has banned most foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it difficult to independently confirm accounts on the ground.

A small group of activists in Damascus also took part in Saturday's opposition meeting, but they had to join by telephone. The opposition had planned to hold dual meetings in Damascus and Istanbul, but the location in Syria was besieged by security forces on Friday, forcing them to scale back their plans. Activists say 14 protesters were killed Friday in the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, where the conference was to be held.

Opposition figure Mashaal Tammo, addressing the conference by phone from Damascus, said Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule and called on him to step down.

"The existence of the regime is no longer justified," he said.

___

AP Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Istanbul.

___

Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram

View the original article here

Six Syrians killed as 500,000 protest against Assad (AFP)

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian security forces killed at least six demonstrators as more than half a million people took to the streets across the country on Friday to demand the departure of Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

The protests came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said time was running out for the Syrian president, as he pursues a violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists that has killed more than 1,300 people since mid-March.

At least three people died in the central city of Homs when security forces opened fire, two were killed in Damascus and one in Daraya, near the capital, activist Ammar Qorabi told AFP in Nicosia.

Qorabi, who runs the National Organisation of Human Rights and is based in Egypt, said by telephone that a seventh person was killed on Friday in an unrelated drive-by grenade attack.

State television gave a conflicting toll, saying gunmen killed one demonstrator in Damascus and two people in Homs, one a policeman.

Waves of protesters flooded the streets nationwide to demand the fall of the regime, with varying reports putting the turnout in the central city of Hama alone at more than half a million.

The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, spoke of 500,000 protesters and said this was "the biggest demonstration since the Syrian Revolution broke out" on March 15.

Another activist said that "more than 400,000 marched," adding that "they came from all over, from mosques and nearby towns."

A third said more than 200,000 had gathered in the city's Assi Square, stretching for more than one kilometre, and that there was no sign of security forces.

Hama has a bloody past. In 1982, an estimated 20,000 people were killed when the army put down an Islamist revolt.

Demonstrations also gripped the protest hub of Homs where one activist said "more than 100,000 people" protested in several districts as tanks were deployed.

Abdel Karim Rihawi, president of the Syrian League for Human Rights, said "tens of thousands of protesters headed towards Deir Ezzor's Freedom Square upon leaving the mosques" after the weekly prayers in the eastern oil hub on the Euphrates River.

In Jabal al-Zawiyah, which has been the theatre of army operations since Tuesday, "tens of thousands of people started to march from the village towards Maaret al-Numan," he told AFP.

State television reported pro-regime demonstrations in the northern commercial hub of Aleppo and in Suweida, in the south, with people chanting "God, Syria, Bashar and that's it."

Overnight, Abdel Rahman said security forces killed three civilians in Jabal al-Zawiyah, and explosions were heard in the coastal city of Latakia.

Meanwhile Clinton criticised the Assad regime's incoherence in authorising an opposition meeting while stifling dissent.

"Allowing one meeting of the opposition in Damascus is not sufficient," she told reporters on a visit to Lithuania.

"I'm just hurt by recent reports of continuing violence on the border and in Aleppo, where demonstrators have been beaten, attacked with knives by government-organised groups and security forces," Clinton said.

"It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time. There isn't any question about that."

Friday's protests followed a call from the Facebook group, The Syrian Revolution 2011 group, which called on people to rally, branding July 1 "the Friday of departure" and saying in a message to Assad: "We don't love you... Go away, you and your party."

Hundreds of protesters in Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, were beaten back on Thursday by baton-wielding security forces, activists said.

On Thursday, the opposition announced the creation of a "national coordination committee" of exiled dissidents and opponents at home to push for democratic reforms.

The announcement came after about 160 dissidents, several of whom have spent years in jail, gathered Monday in Damascus, vowing to press ahead with a "peaceful uprising for freedom and democracy and pluralism to establish a democratic state through peaceful means."

The dissidents demanded the right to demonstrate peacefully, the release of political prisoners, freedom of the press, the safe return of refugees and moves to prevent foreign intervention.

The Observatory says 1,360 civilians have been killed since mid-March and that 343 security force personnel have also died. Thousands have been arrested.

View the original article here

15 die as Syrians march demanding Assad's ouster (AP)

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press – 8?mins?ago

BEIRUT – Defying government guns, thousands of Syrian protesters poured down city streets and a main highway Friday to press demands for President Bashar Assad's ouster. Security forces opened fire, killing at least 15 people, including two children, activists said.

"Our revolution is strong! Assad has lost legitimacy!" a YouTube video showed protesters chanting in Zabadani, a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Syria's streets have become the stage for a test of endurance between a 3-month-old pro-democracy movement, bloodied but resilient, and an iron-fisted but embattled regime. The latest round of protests and killings came as international pressure mounted on Assad.

"We will not stand by while the Syrian regime uses violent repression to silence its own people," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said after the European Union expanded sanctions — asset freezes and travel bans — to more members of the Syrian leadership.

The Syrian opposition says 1,400 people have been killed as the government has cracked down on a movement demanding an end to four decades of Assad family rule — a popular uprising renewed each Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.

Five people were killed by security forces' gunfire this Friday in Barzeh, a Damascus district 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the city center, said the Local Coordination Committees, which track the protests. But Syrian state television offered another version, saying gunmen, otherwise unidentified, had opened fire on security personnel and civilians, killing three civilians and wounding several security force members.

Five other fatalities occurred in al-Kasweh, a suburb of the capital; four in the central city of Homs, and one in Hama, also in central Syria, said the Local Coordination Committees (LCC). Protests in several other provinces also came under fire but it was not immediately clear whether there were casualties, said LCC spokesman Omar Idilbi.

The group said the deaths included a 12-year-old boy, Rateb al-Orabi, killed when security forces fired on protesters in the Shammas neighborhood in Homs, and a 13-year old boy in al-Kasweh. The reports could not be independently verified.

In northern Syria, activists said at least 15,000 people staged a protest along the highway linking the country's two main cities, Damascus and Aleppo. Thousands marched in Amouda and Qamishli in the northeast and in other provinces, said Syria-based human rights activist Mustafa Osso.

Osso and the LCC both reported a few soldiers defected in al-Kasweh after security forces shot at protesters, resulting in a shootout between loyal soldiers and defectors. Syrian TV swiftly denied the mutiny report, saying the army wasn't even inside al-Kasweh Friday.

The report from Osso, which he said came from protesters and other area residents, could not be independently verified.

In Hama, activists said, a massive protest took place in the city's main Assi square. Online footage showed huge numbers of people gathered, many waving Syrian flags and crying for the regime's downfall. A large purple banner was unfurled over a building, reading: "Long live free Syria, down with Bashar Assad."

The video and other reports from inside Syria could not otherwise be confirmed, since the Damascus government has banned all but a few foreign journalists and restricted local media's reporting.

In a speech last Monday, Assad said the disruptive protests threatened to damage the Syrian economy. For now, he can count on the support of Syria's small but growing middle class, which has seen life gradually improve since he began opening up the economy. But if the economy crumbles, Assad could find his main base of support eroding swiftly.

"The economic problems Syria is facing are a direct and predictable consequence of the Syrian authorities' decision to chose repression over reform," Britain's Hague said.

The military's recent sweep through northwestern Syria, where armed resistance flared in early June, has sent more than 11,000 refugees fleeing across the border to refugee camps in Turkey.

Osso said those who did not flee on Thursday, as Syrian troops advanced right to the Turkish border, were arrested — some 100 over the past two days.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters Friday he had conveyed Turkey's "concerns and thoughts" about the border-area military operation in a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart on Thursday.

He said he would continue to talk to Syrian officials to ensure that "reforms and peace are brought about as soon as possible."

"We hope that Syria is successful in renewing itself in a stable manner and comes out of the situation stronger. We will do all that we can to help," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Mehmet Guzel in Guvecci, Turkey, contributed to this report.

View the original article here