June 24, 2011 (AFP)
Syrian security forces opened fire on demonstrators Friday killing at least one person and wounding nine others in the town of Kiswah near Damascus, an activist told AFP.
Thousands of protesters demonstrated across Syria after the weekly Muslim prayers calling for the fall of the autocratic regime of President Bashar al-Assad 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.”
“One person was killed and nine other protesters were wounded when security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrators in Kiswah,” the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP in Nicosia.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who spoke by telephone, had earlier reported that several people had been hurt when the security forces opened fire to crush the protest in Kiswah, south of Damascus
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“Bashar is no longer my president and his government no longer represents me,” it said.
