Damascus Syrian security forces shot dead at least 25 people while dispersing tens of thousands of demonstrators in Hama on Friday, activists said, as anti- regime protests spread to Damascus, AFP reports.
Security forces unleashed
” intense gunfire” against a crowd of more than 50,000 people in Hama, according to Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the London- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It was the largest demonstration in Hama since the mid- March outbreak of an uprising against President Bashar al- Assad, he said.
The official alt39 SANAalt39 news agency, however, reported ” hundreds of people gathered after Friday prayers in Hama chanting diverse slogans” but that security forces and police had stayed away.
In 1982, Hama was the scene of a brutal crackdown that left an estimated 20,000 people dead when the Muslim Brotherhood rose up against the late Hafez al- Assad, father of current President Bashar al- Assad.
Thousands of demonstrators also rallied in and around Damascus on Friday, which so far has been largely spared the protests rocking Syria for more than 10 weeks, another rights activist said.
About 2,000 people marched in Rukn al- Din suburb and police armed with batons beat demonstrators in the southern Damascus district of Midan in a bid to break up a rally, said Abdul Karim Rihawi of the Syrian League for Human Rights.
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