Updated on
Summary Democracy activists Friday took to the streets across the country demanding regime change.
Several protesters were wounded gunfire in the town of Houla, in Homs province, where demonstrations also took place in the city itself despite shelling by the army, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.The army bombarded Homss Jobar neighbourhood on Friday morning, according to a video posted online, in which strong explosions are heard and a plume of smoke rises into the sky.Demonstrations were held after Fridays weekly Muslim prayers in various parts of southern Daraa province, birthplace of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, with several protesters wounded in Inkhel as they emerged from mosques, the Observatory said.Protests also took place in several districts of Aleppo, where security forces fired on protesters in the Salaheddin neighbourhood in a bid to disperse them, the Observatory said.In Idlib province, clashes broke out between regime forces and rebel militias, the Britain-based rights watchdog added, although there were no immediate reports of casualties.In Damascus, protesters gathered at dawn in numerous residential districts in support of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), and calling for Assads downfall, with loyalist forces firing tear gas to disperse demonstrators marching in the Midane district.The Observatory said six civilians were killed on Friday. Among them were four people, including three teenagers, who were gunned down in the early morning by regime forces as they guarded their farm in Chizar village, Hama province.Violence across the country on Thursday, including the shelling of the rebel stronghold of Rastan left at least 34 people dead, including 24 civilians.The outgoing leader of Syrias largest opposition group charged on Thursday that the deeply divided opposition had failed its people.Burhan Ghalioun, speaking to AFP after the main opposition Syrian National Council accepted his resignation, said the chasm in its ranks between Islamist and secularists had let down the Syrian people and played into Assads hands.We were not up to the sacrifices of the Syrian people. We did not answer the needs of the revolution enough and quickly enough, Ghalioun said.I submitted my resignation precisely to say that this path of division between Islamist and secular doesnt work and I think the Syrian regime has won in that respect because since the beginning it has tried to play on this division, the Paris-based academic added.The FSA, made up largely of dissidents from the regular army, insisted that helping the Syrian people obtain their freedom was among its top priorities, in a statement outlining its goals and principles.It also said it would refer to international courts those responsible for war crimes against the Syrian people, and pledged total commitment to international standards of human rights.The group, made up largely of deserters from the regular army, further promised not to intervene in the political process after the fall of the Assad regime.A UN panel said on Thursday government forces were to blame for most abuses in the violence that has raged on daily despite a UN-backed ceasefire supposed to take effect April 12.The Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, also highlighted in a report released in Geneva the reported the killing, capture and torture of army and security force personnel, as well as suspected informers, by anti-government groups and their growing use of homemade bombs.More than 12,600 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt against Assads rule broke out in March last year, including nearly 1,500 since the UN-backed truce took effect, according to Observatory figures.
