Video Shows Protests and Gunfire in Syria — Report Clams 63 Killed
- Posted on June 5, 2011 at 12:02am by
Scott Baker
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BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian human rights activist has raised Friday’s death toll among protesters to 63, most of them killed after troops opened fire on crowds in the central city of Hama.
Activists had initially said Friday that at least 48 people had been killed across Syria.
Mustafa Osso also said Saturday that the Internet has been mostly restored, a day after authorities shut it down.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that at least 48 people were killed in Hama alone. In 1982, the Syrian regime heavily bombed the city, killing thousands.
The Local Coordination Committees, which helps organize and document Syria’s protests, said at least 1,270 people have been killed since an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in mid-March.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian city that was bombed into submission three decades ago after a crushed uprising became a new center for protest and violence Friday, as activists said troops opened fire on a crowd of thousands and killed at least 34. Still, people nationwide poured into the streets in unprecedented numbers, defying the crackdown and a government chokehold on the Internet.
One of the largest protests calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad was in Hama, where Assad’s father killed thousands in 1982 and emerged to rule uncontested, the carnage seared into national memory.
“It is a real massacre,” said a witness who took part in Friday’s Hama protests and fled the gunfire. “People were running, shouting. We ran up to people’s homes and hid there until the gunfire died down,” he said.
Friday’s protests appeared to be the biggest since the uprising began in mid-March, with people gathering in ever larger numbers in cities and towns across the country, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Protests also swept through several Damascus suburbs, as well as the capital’s central Midan neighborhood, which has seen demonstrations in recent weeks.
The movement has been loosely organized on Facebook pages and increasingly inspired by footage of the crackdown on YouTube and other video sharing sites, but Friday’s Internet cuts appeared not to deter participants. Abdul-Rahman said the increase in protesters reflected the lack of trust in any government concessions, including a call for national dialogue.
In Hama, the witness and activists said at least 100,000 people took part in the protest, making it one of the largest in the city since the start of the 11-week uprising. Thirty-four people were killed, said Abdul-Rahman.
Rights groups say more than 1,100 people have been killed nationwide since mid-March.
“Today’s protests are a reaction to the so-called overtures by the regime which has lost all credibility. It’s the people saying we will not accept this anymore,” said Najib al-Ghadban, a U.S.-based Syrian academic and political activist.
Al-Ghadban said the Hama demonstration was especially significant, calling it “a qualitative leap that will encourage others to do the same.”
He said most of the protesters were born after the 1982 massacre and do not harbor the same fear as their elders. “They heard about it, which is positive because it makes them more bent on keeping their protest movement peaceful. They don’t want a repetition of the massacres.”
“You cannot separate what happened in 1982 from what is happening now. It’s the same trend, but of course the world has changed so it cannot be on the same scale,” he said.
The Syrian Brotherhood, a Sunni Muslim fundamentalist movement, led a violent campaign against the government of Assad’s father, late President Hafez Assad, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Assassinations and bomb attacks killed hundreds as the group attempted to install Islamic rule.
In 1982, Assad’s army crushed a Sunni uprising by the Brotherhood in Hama over a three-week period, flattening much of the city and killing 10,000 to 25,000 people, according to Amnesty International estimates.
The eyewitness in Hama said chaos broke out Friday as troops fired tear gas and live ammunition and snipers opened fire on tens of thousands of peaceful protesters who were calling for freedom and Assad’s ouster.
“People started running while the dead littered the streets,” he said. The activist, who like many involved in the protests requested anonymity to avoid reprisals, said hospitals were calling on people to donate blood.
Syria’s state-run TV said three “saboteurs” were killed when police tried to stop them from setting a government building on fire in Hama. The Syrian government blames armed gangs and religious extremists for the violence.
Abdul-Rahman said security forces killed one person in the village of Has in the northern province of Idlib, where tens of thousands of people protested. Another rights activist, Mustafa Osso, said security forces shot dead eight protesters in the city of Homs and three in the northeastern city of Deir al-Zour. State-run TV said five policemen were wounded in Deir al-Zour there but did not say how.
The opposition had called for nationwide rallies Friday to commemorate the nearly 30 children killed by the regime in the uprising.
Syrian troops also pounded the central town of Rastan with artillery and gunfire for a seventh day, killing at least two people, according to the Local Coordination Committees, which helps organize and document Syria’s protests. It said troops also opened fire on residents fleeing the town.
Friday’s deaths bring the toll in Rastan and nearby Talbiseh to 74 killed since last Saturday.
In the southern city of Daraa, where the uprising began 10 weeks ago, scores of people rallied in the old quarter, chanting “No dialogue with the killers of children,” an activist said.
The protesters were referring to a decree by Assad to set up a committee to lead a national dialogue.
The regime also released hundreds of political prisoners this week after Assad issued a pardon. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said leading Kurdish politician Mashaal Tammo and Muhannad al-Hassani, who heads the Syrian Organization for Human Rights, were released Thursday.
A Syrian activist said authorities cut Internet service in several parts of the country, apparently to prevent activists from uploading footage of the protests and the government crackdown and from organizing new resistance. In Damascus, several people contacted over the phone said the Internet was down.
The government has cut Internet service in areas of military operations before and occasionally disrupted service, but Friday’s outage appeared to be the most widespread
Renesys, a trusted U.S. firm that specializes in keeping tabs on Internet connectivity, confirmed the Syrian outage and said two-thirds of all Syrian networks were unavailable.
Still many activists found alternate ways to log on and upload videos, such as satellite connections.
Video surfaced earlier this week on YouTube, Facebook and websites of Hamza al-Khatib, a 13-year-old boy whose tortured and mutilated body was returned to his family weeks after he disappeared during the protests.
The boy has since become a symbol to Syria’s uprising and many people carried his posters during anti-regime rallies this week.
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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
___
Follow Zeina Karam at http://twitter.com/zkaram
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hcartexas
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 11:27pmHow many clams???
Report Post »Richard Compton
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 4:35pmLet me see if I’ve got this right, 63 killed in Syria by the Syrian Governmet, 20 killed at the Israel boarder trying to breech the boarder fence. Will the media blame Israel for both incidents? Lets us wait and see, my guess would be yes, they will. Now one must ask themselves a question here and that question is this, hasn’t the left always said that the media is controled by the Jews, which has been what I’ve heard for most of my life, so why would the Jews be disting themselves on the world stage in the media they suposidly control? I’m just curious!
Report Post »NOBALONEY
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 1:25pmTwo sided coin in foreign affairs. Egypt, Libya, and Yemen are regime changes, while Iran and Syria continue because of the Russian’s two warnings. NATO, UN, G 8 and the United States are being used as pawns.
Report Post »Lowgo1981
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 12:54pmThank God it was only clams!
Report Post »g.prunty
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 11:59amI like clams more then Muslims
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 3:04pmI like rabid rats more than Muslims.
Report Post »Kilzone58
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 11:34amHey Obama did you get what you wanted with starting all this sh** with your big mouth about Israel borders. Are you really a true blue American or just some two faced A**hole who does’nt have the ba**s to come right out and admit it. I think you and your pals planned this crap why else did you wait until the last minute to air your speech which was not what you said to Israel Prez. You waited until he was in the air then you annouced it. Your are a coward, liar, and a complete failure as a human being. I hope everything come back on you and your family ten folds. Now shove that up your MUSLIM A** and sit on it.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 10:39amkilled
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 9:53amThey killer 63 Clams? Was it a beach party?
Report Post »His Lamb is Satanic
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 9:35amI saw some Moose Limb poison at the Mexican Depot store?
I was in North Africa in the 70′s. Moose Limbs were already crazy from never having sex. No women could be seen anywhere, just unemployed men playing dominos with high pitched anxiety and a crazy lust- look to their deep black eyes, really crazy. They should all be wiped out with atomic bombs before they amass in numbers here. I live at the southern border, and Mex and Arabs are coming across hundreds and thousands at a time. You won’t here about it on the propaganda Uganda news channels, or from Obama Amin-Idi’s brother. While we blog we are being completely over run. Someone call in the “Broken Arrow” call sign for a napalmolive run?
Report Post »When Davy Crockett saw how congress was completely bribed and extorted, he said,”You can all go to Hell. I am going to Texas.” Remember the Alamo.
sjohn70037
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 9:08amOh boy!!!! More videos of muslims killing muslims. Does it get any better than this?
Report Post »simplygilly
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 7:59am“CLAMS”? I could use a part time job. Need a proof-reader?
Report Post »trooper
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 7:07amThier off to a good start, keep it up boys. The more you slaughter today will save on our amunition later.
Report Post »Aaron in Polk County
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 5:55amThe protestors and anti-American and the government is anti-American, maybe we should be selling bigger weapons to both sides.
Report Post »riseandshine
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 4:21amShowmestateguy…No… genocide wouldn’t be good for sure…..I doubt we’ll see any major trouble for a few years….Thank You for being respectful…I have some strong views that get me in trouble sometimes…lol…Same goes with you Hawk……Later..gotta get some sleep
Report Post »SHOWMESTATEGUY
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:41amThings are changing in the Arab world and I don’t think anyone knows if it is for the better or worst. One thing I do know, if America does not let every nation know that we stand with Isreal if she is attacked, then Isreal is in trouble. I’m concerned the current administration will not convey that message to other nations.
Report Post »riseandshine
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 3:09amIsrael is quite capable of defending itself if push comes to shove….I hope we don’t “have Israel’s back” if that happens…we don’t need another world war…..I’m so tired of Neocon foreign policy.
Report Post »SHOWMESTATEGUY
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 3:28amRISEANDSHINE, Your point is taken, I don’t like our present situation. However, Israel would have been defeated in 1973 if not for our resupply effort. Clearly you are not a fan of neocon policy. I would hope you are not a fan of genocide either.
Report Post »the hawk
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 3:36amyEAH ! AGREE having that foreign policy, assures we will have anouther WORLD war!
Report Post »I THINK iSRAEL can take care of her self , but we might should make it clear CERTIAN COUNTRIES
NOT GET INVOLVED ! RUSSIA,CHINA,SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES,PAKISTAN,INDIA, dont look good, not saving for long retirement!
Mateytwo Barreett
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:28pmI read your post a couple times. Do you think this administration has ANY intention of any type of support for Israel? Not hardly!! Our little media whore in the WH has been out front on many policies that have been “walked back” muttled.softened, whatever. O’Bama(he’s Irish yannow)s statement CLEARLY indicates the WH position is NO support of any kind for Israel.
Report Post »the hawk
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:37amFarrakahn is not paranoid! focused !
Report Post »Mateytwo Barreett
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:20pmLIKE a freaking LASER!!
Report Post »His Lamb is Satanic
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:18amif we handled WWII like we handle things today we would all be sieg hieling Hitler and bowing to the Japanese to get our heads cut off for sport. If you folk do not develop some aggressive philosophies we will all be killed.
Report Post »His Lamb is Satanic
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:15amIf we had any backbone we would have wiped these hags off the planet with hydrgen bombs and built the Tigris Euphrates condo project, but TV has brainwashed even the patriots into complacency. Arabs lie like persian rugs. They must be wiped out for good. Ih…but that would be mean? OK, they will be coming up your steps soon enough, to kill your children and rape your women. Have you any backbone left, or have you left that at Starbucks with your common sense?
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 1:55amYou guys sound as paranoid as Farrakhan.
Report Post »the hawk
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 1:30amALL i Have to say is we helped AFFGANISTAN from the Russians and They arn’t our friends!
Report Post »Why would we think Freed LIibya, or Syria will or ever would be frindly with us ?
Anyone have an answer for That !
Robert-CA
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 3:05amThey won’t be friends with us that will never happen .
Report Post »Libya has oil & is not a danger to Israel .
Syria doesn’t have huge oil reserve but it has a nuclear program or @ least they’re trying to & Syria is a direct danger to Israel .
Syria is 3 in 1 ( Syria-Iran-Hezbollah )
the hawk
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 3:39amI PREFER ISOLATIONISM ! LETS BUILD a WALL DAMN IT !
Report Post »Robert-CA
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 5:11ama wall ?????????????????
Report Post »we can’t even build a fence .
1stAmendment
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 12:55amThese people can’t defend themselves, because of strict gun laws (gun control) in syria!
Report Post »cheezwhiz
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 1:02amDoes BP have financial interests in Syria, as they have in Libya ??
Report Post »No wonder those ‘rebels’ in Syria are dying and not being ‘protected’ by Britain and other europeans, and Hussein.
Amos37
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 1:19amThis is a great time for a vacation. maybe we could go shoot some golf. we could just drive around america in a big bus that other people pay for. Don’t you people know what is coming next?
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 1:31am@Cheezwhiz:
Anyone wonder if it was Google that caused the internet loss so the Syrian leadership can cut even more damage to the uprisers and no one will be able to confirm it? After what they did in Egypt, I have to say the door can swing both ways, open or close, to the ones with the right keys.
Report Post »nzkiwi
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 1:40am@1stAmendment
That’s right. The first sign of tyranny is the removal of guns from citizen’s hands. Or increasing restriction in the case of socialism.
Your founders did not put that in the constitution because they wished to promote mayhem in the new Republic, they wished to prevent it.
Report Post »slimster
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 1:47amWhy are we not helping these people? Instead we are helping the “rebels”, whose leaders have been identified as Al Qaeda, who have tons of weapons and are committing genocide on the black gadaffi supporters
Report Post »1stAmendment
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:00am@NZKIWI
Report Post »Well said, I’m exercising my 1st Amendment rights!
And they should be exercising there 2nd Amendment rights!
Oh, they don’t have a constitution! Well that’s exactly why they are being violated, totured, murdered, and harrased! God bless America!
Showtime
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:10am(Please read your headline — “Report Clams 63 Killed” – ? Wouldn’t a report CLAIM 63 killed?)
Report Post »No need to post this — just pls fix headline.
1stAmendment
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:14am@SHOWTIME
Report Post »nice of you
Didn’t even notice!
Showtime
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:20amThanks, “First,” but it didn’t do any good. They didn’t fix the headline.
Report Post »Aaron in Polk County
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 5:59amThat is 63 less potential terrorist in my opinion. Who knows how many Israeli and American lives are saved for ever Muslim killed.
Keep up the good work you crazy Middle East Sand Dwellers.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 6:25am@ 1stAmendment
We need to supply them with more weapons…maybe a b-52 can fly over and drop a few hundreed tons of rocks.
“The enemy of my enemy, is my friend…until they come to power and become my enemy…killing me with the very weapons I gave them.”
Report Post »BehindBlueEyes
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 6:44am@1stAmendment
Report Post »I’m exercising my 1st Amendment rights daily and I have my 2nd Amendment right under my bed.
Thevoice
Posted on June 5, 2011 at 2:45pmJust wait for the day all these Muslim pieces are linked together ..All those proclaimed wonderful pro death to US death to Israel groups will become one big mess we will have to deal with..(hey they might even have the same uniforms then)…….Then you will finally understand …The mistake of not destroying your enemy …When we had the chance….
Report Post »