Syrians living in Lebanon, keep their national flags when they get a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, wear during a rally in support of him, for the Syrian Embassy in Beirut, April 29, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Sharif KarimBy Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Suleiman al-KhalidiAMMAN | Fri 29 april 2011 3: 22 pm EDT
AMMAN (Reuters)-Syrian troops killed 15 people when they are on thousands of demonstrators trying to the southern city of Deraa, the heart of a six-week rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad sacked, a medical source said on Friday.
The bloodshed occurred as demonstrations again broke out throughout the country, defying heavy military deployments, mass arrests and a ruthless repression in the biggest popular challenge to 48 years of authoritarian regime of the Baath party.
The medical source in Tafas, 12 km (8 km) northwest of Deraa, said the local hospital received 15 bullet-riddled bodies, and 38 wounded villagers after the collision near Deraa.
Assad the violent repression has led to growing condemnation from Western countries a few years to go to Damascus and loose its close alliance with Iran and move in the direction of a peace agreement with Israel had been looking for.
Sources in Washington said on Friday that the United States sanctions against Syria, focusing on five persons and entities for violations of human rights would sharpen. The UN Human Rights Council resolution also a criticism of Syria.
A Syrian rights group said this week at least 500 civilians had been killed since the unrest broke out in Deraa on 18 March. Authorities contest the death toll, saying 78 security forces and 70 civilians died in violence which they blamed on armed groups.
State news agency SANA said on Friday an "armed terrorist group" four soldiers were killed and two Deraa, where Assad sent tanks and troops to crush resistance on Monday kidnapped.
But a witness in Deraa said Syrian troops fired live rounds at thousands of villagers who descended on the besieged city.
"They shot at people in the Western port of Deraa in the Yadoda area, almost three kilometers (two miles) from the Centre of the city," he said.
The latest violence erupted after Friday prayers as thousands of people hit the streets across the country Assad demands the removal and pledging support for the residents of Deraa.
"People want the overthrow of the regime!" demonstrators chanted in many protests, witnesses said.
More demonstrations flared in the Central towns of Homs and Hama, Banias on the Mediterranean, Qamishly in Eastern Syria and Harasta, a suburb of Damascus.
The old Midan district of Damascus saw so far, the largest protest in the capital with 10,000 people marching until they were dispersed by security forces firing tear gas, said rights activists.
Wissam Tarif, Director of the Insan human rights group, said two people were killed in protests in Latakia. The murders could not immediately be confirmed. Foreign journalists are usually expelled from Syria.
A rights campaigner reportedly stands in Deraa said on Friday, makeshift morgues in the city that the bodies of 83 people who had killed because the army the city, near the southern border of Syria with Jordan, on Monday stormed, he said.
REGIONAL IMPACT
Inspired by revolt reduced from Egypt and Tunisia's leaders, the unrest can have regional consequences because Syria, Middle East political fault lines, cross-border is related to Iran and Hezbollah and Hamas militant movements, while intermittent supports indirect peace talks with Israel.
Syria banned Muslim Brotherhood, which is largely on the sidelines of the protests so far called on Syrians to take to the streets on Friday in support of Deraa.
It was the first time the brotherhood, mercilessly crushed together with secular leftist movements during the 30 years of Hafez al-Assad the rule, had requested direct protests.
The group said Government allegations that Islamists were behind the unrest were unfounded and aimed at promoting civil war and demands for political freedoms.
But a Jordanian Muslim, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, said that Muslims were obliged to join the protest and that the overthrow of the minority Alawite Assad rule would be a step towards implementation of Sharia law in the mainly Sunni Islamic State.
Friday, the Muslim day of rest and prayers, is the main opportunity for demonstrators to gather, challenging repeated warnings by the authorities not to show.
Security forces shot dead 120 demonstrators on Friday 22 April, according to a Syrian rights group, in the biggest protests that Syria has seen since the rebellion in Deraa on March 18, inflamed.
Three days later stormed an Army Division under the control of brother's Maher Assad in Deraa. That reflected their fathers 1982 attack on Hama to crush an armed revolt of the Muslim Brotherhood, killing up to 30,000 people.
In a sign of rare disagreement within the ruling circles dismissal 200 members of the Baath party in protest against the bloody repression on Wednesday.
EU ambassadors were on Friday to discuss the possibility of the imposition of sanctions against Syria, which could include asset freezes and travel restrictions on important officials meet in Brussels.
"I would expect that a political signal towards sanctions, but perhaps not a decision yet," said a diplomat from the EU. Other EU measures against Syria could include freezing of financial support, which at 43 million euros ($ 64 million equivalent) per year.
(Writing by Dominic Evans; Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Yara Bayoumy in Beirut)
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