Scores of people are said to have been hit by gunfire at protests on Friday Saturday, April 23, 2011
Syrian forces shoot at mourners
Scores of people are said to have been hit by gunfire at protests on Friday Security forces in Syria have shot dead at least six people at funerals for anti-government protesters killed on Friday, reports say.
They opened fire on mourners gathering in a suburb of the capital Damascus and near the southern village of Ezra, witnesses said.
At least 72 people reportedly died on Friday, the bloodiest day in some five weeks of unrest.
Two Syrian MPs have resigned in protest at the violence.
"After I have failed to protect my sons from the treacherous shots there is no point in me staying in parliament," one of the MPs, Naser al-Hariri, told al-Jazeera TV. "I announce now that I am stepping down."
Friday's bloodshed, which came a day after President Bashar al-Assad scrapped decades of emergency rule, drew strong international condemnation.
Syria's state news agency has reported a limited number of protests in some provinces and described the violence as the work of armed criminal gangs.
With foreign journalists unable to get into Syria, accounts of casualties - carried by eyewitnesses, opposition activists and human rights groups - cannot be verified independently.
The BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Beirut says it appears that the government has made a deliberate decision to use live ammunition, to clear the streets and to impose order.
With many people in Syria now openly calling for an end to President Assad's rule, he says the government realises its survival is at stake and it is fighting hard.
Tens of thousands of mourners were said to be attending Saturday's funerals.
Security forces reportedly fired on mourners travelling to funerals in Ezra in an effort to prevent them from attending.
"There was heavy volley of gunfire in our direction as we approached Ezra to join the funerals of martyrs," one witness said.
More than 150 buses had left the flash-point southern town of Deraa to attend funerals for 18 victims in Ezra and other villages, AFP news agency reports.
In the Damascus suburb of Douma, snipers reportedly shot dead at least three people, and there are reports of a fatal shooting in another part of the capital, Barzeh, where clerics used mosque loudspeakers to appeal for doctors to help the wounded.
Funerals were also expected in the Damascus neighbourhood of Midan and in Harasta, north of the capital.
Human rights groups and activists gave death tolls for Friday ranging from 72 to more than 90, and one group said the death toll could reach 100.
Many of the deaths were reported to have occurred in Ezra and Douma as well as the central city of Homs.
Amnesty International says two boys aged seven and 10 were among those killed in Ezra.
US President Barack Obama joined a chorus of international condemnation.
"This outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end now," he said of Friday's clashes.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for an independent investigation into the killings, while France said it was "extremely concerned" and condemned the violence.
"Light should be shed on these crimes and those responsible must be identified, arrested and brought to justice," foreign ministry deputy spokeswoman Christine Fages said.
The official Syrian news agency said security forces had used only tear gas and water cannon to prevent clashes on Friday.
It said the army had found digital cameras containing short, fabricated videos depicting fake repression, and that armed gangs were carrying bottles of blood to be used in making fake films.
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-13175677
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