Dozens of people were killed across Syria today as protesters took to the streets to call for a “people’s liberation war” and regime forces recaptured a town, a rights watchdog and activists said.
Regime forces seized the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province from rebel fighters last night,
activists said.
After a 10-day escalation of regime shelling of the besieged town, “it is now full of shabiha (pro-regime
militiamen) and troops,” an Idlib-based activist told AFP.
Syria’s state news agency SANA said: “The authorities, in response to calls from citizens, chased the armed terrorist groups out of the city and surrounding farms and raided their dens.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 46 people were killed today: 29 civilians, 14
soldiers and three rebels.
The watchdog reported demonstrations in several provinces across Syria, including in the capital Damascus and the
northern city of Aleppo, the country’s commercial hub.
Protesters braved live fire by regime forces in several areas of Damascus province, the Observatory said, while
thousands more took to the streets in Aleppo, according to an anti-regime activist in the city.
“Regime forces opened fire on protesters in many of these demonstrations,” the activist told AFP via Skype.
He said at least 20 people were wounded by gunfire.
Protesters called for foreign military intervention in Syria and for the arming of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army (FSA),” he said.
“We want freedom, whatever you say, O Assad!” cried the demonstrators, in amateur video posted on YouTube.
——————(AFP)