Anti-regime protests spark in Syria after blasts

World

Anti-regime protests spark in Syria after blasts

Close

Demonstrators take to streets after Juma prayers in Idlib, Hama, Deir Ezzor and other areas

11 May,2012 04:39 pm

Anti-regime protests broke out in various towns across Syria on Friday despite a heavy deployment of regime forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Demonstrators took to the streets after weekly Muslim prayers in Idlib province of northwest Syria, Hama in the centre as well as the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and other areas, activists said.The protests came a day after the deadliest car bomb attacks in the 14-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assads regime.The bomb attacks in front of a military intelligence building in Damascus killed 55 people and wounded around 400 others.Activists said regime troops deployed heavily in several regions to prevent the protests, which have become a weekly event since the uprising broke out in March 2011.In the northern city of Aleppo, regime forces fired at demonstrators in the Salaheddin neighbourhood, said the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists.In Damascus province, regime forces carried out a campaign of arbitrary arrests after a morning protest, according to the LCC.Regular and paramilitary regime forces in Deir Ezzor were deployed heavily to prevent protests from breaking out, the activist network said.In Idlib, a flashpoint of the 14-month revolt, Syrian regime forces are deploying heavily near the mosques, the Britain-based Observatory said.From the start of the uprising, demonstrations demanding the fall of the regime have been held every Friday across Syria. They regularly begin in the early afternoon, as soon as weekly prayers are over.After Assads regime responded to protesters with a fierce military crackdown, what began as a peaceful uprising has gradually degenerated into an armed conflict.More than 12,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising began, according to the Observatory.