Clashes erupted in Syria on Friday as hundreds of thousands filled the streets to demonstrate against the government of President Bashar Al-Assad and activists said at least 10 people were shot dead. Demonstrators determined to show the strength of their movement to Arab League monitors deployed in hotspots across the country threw rocks at security forces in the Damascus suburb of Douma where troops tear-gassed the chanting crowds. Five people were shot dead in the city of Hama and five in the city of Deraa in the south. “Five were martyred today and at least 20 wounded when the Syrian security forces opened fire,” the British-basedd Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, referring to Hama. It said security forces fired at tens of thousands of protesters in the northern province of Idlib, wounding 25. At least two dozen were injured in the Damascus suburb of Douma, activists said. One report said army defectors in Douma were engaged in armed clashes with troops. There were no further details. Some 250,000 gathered after Friday's Muslim prayer in the northern province of Idlib at 74 different locations, according to the Observatory, an opposition network relaying activist reports. “This Friday is different from any other Friday. It is a transformative step. People are eager to reach the monitors and tell them about their suffering,” said activist Abu Hisham in Hama. In Homs, the city at the centre of nine months of revolt, Al Jazeera television showed a huge crowd of dancing protesters who appeared to be in the thousands. “Revolution, revolution Syria, revolution of glory and freedom Syria,” they shouted. In the Damascus suburb of Barzeh, where large crowds had also gathered, protesters held up signs saying “The Monitors are witnesses who don't see anything,” and shouted, “Bashar we don't want you, Syrians raise your hands.” In Brussels, a spokesperson for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the EU also “urges Syria to comply with the action plan of the Arab League in all its components” including “an immediate end of violence, the release of political prisoners, pulling the military out of cities”.
