Syrian protesters call on Assad to step down

AL Jazeera Middle East

Activists say two people killed in the city of Homs, as thousands take to the streets across the country. Last Modified: 01 Jul 2011 13:48

Protests in Syria show no sign of abating, despite reform pledges by President Assad [Reuters] Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets across Syria in fresh protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Witnesses and activists said the anti-government protesters were calling on Assad to "leave", braving a security crackdown ordered by the authorities to quell unprecedented protests sweeping the nation since March. Activists said security forces shot dead at least two people and wounded another 12 as more than 100,000 people turned out in the central city of Homs on Friday. Soldiers, backed by armoured vehicles, had been setting up road blocks on the main roads in the city to prevent protests. Hugh Macleod, reporting for Al Jazeera from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, cited Syrian activists as saying that 30,000 demonstrators had gathered in Deir al-Zour in the east of the country after Friday prayers. "They are chanting for an end to the siege on Syrian cities and for the toppling of the regime," they said. A similar demonstration was reported from Ain al-Arab, a Kurdish-majority town on the edge of Aleppo governorate in northern Syria, with marchers holding aloft banners saying "the people want to topple the regime" and "the Syrian people are one". A huge rally was also held in the city of Hama, were people filled the square around the central Clock Tower. 'Time running out' The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an independent group based in London, said three people were killed overnight after tanks led an assault on villages near the Turkish border. The latest protests came as Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said "time was running out for the Syrian government". "They are either going to allow a serious political process that will include peaceful protests to take place throughout Syria and engage in a productive dialogue with members of the opposition and civil society, or they're going to continue to see increasingly organised resistance," she said while addressing an international democracy conference in Lithuania on Thursday. "They must begin a genuine transition to democracy and allowing one meeting of the opposition in Damascus is not sufficient action toward achieving that goal," Clinton said, referring to a rare opposition gathering that the authorities allowed in the capital a few days ago. Assad’s one-party rule is seriously threatened by the protests, apparently inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that toppled long-entrenched leaders. About 1,400 people have reportedly been killed in the crackdown that followed the protests, provoking global condemnation of the Syrian regime.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

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