BEIRUT/AMMAN: Syrian security forces killed dozens of protesters Friday, rights activists said, the bloodiest day in a month of escalating pro-democracy demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad. Amnesty International claims at least 75 people were killed. It cited local activists. Syrian security forces fired live bullets and tear gas on rallies across the country. Syrian rights organization Sawasiah said 70 civilians had been killed across the country, in the biggest demonstrations to sweep Syria so far. Wissam Tarif, director of human rights group Insan, gave a similar death toll. “At least 72 people have been killed so far. The number of injured exceeds 80 people in Homs and its villages and the villages (near the southern city) of Deraa,” he told Reuters. It was not possible to independently confirm the figures. Protests swept the country of 20 million people, from the Mediterranean city of Banias to the eastern towns of Deir Al-Zor and Qamishli. In Damascus, security forces fired teargas to disperse 2,000 protesters in the district of Midan. In Hama, a witness said security forces opened fire to prevent protesters reaching the Baath Party headquarters. “We saw two snipers on the building. None of us had weapons. There are casualties, possibly two dead,” said the witness. Syria's third city Homs, where security forces had killed 21 protesters this week when demonstrators tried to gather at a main square, was not spared Friday either. “I was in the center of Homs and in front of me I heard a security commander telling his armed men: ‘Don't spare them (protesters)'”, rights campaigner Najati Tayara told Reuters. Witnesses said security forces also shot at protesters in the Damascus district of Barzeh and the suburb of Douma. The protests went ahead despite Assad's lifting of the state of emergency the day before. Ending the hated emergency rule, in place since the Baath Party seized power 48 years ago, was a central demand of demonstrators, who also seek the release of political prisoners and dismantling of the security services. Washington urged Syria to stop the violence against protesters and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said emergency law should be “lifted in practice not just in word”. “This was the first test of the seriousness of authorities (toward reform) and they have failed,” Qurabi said. Friday's violence brings the death toll to about 300, according to rights activists, since the unrest which broke out on March 18 in the southern city of Deraa. Syrian television said eight people were killed and 28 wounded, including army personnel, in attacks by armed groups in the village. It added an armed group had attacked a military base in a Damascus suburb. In the first joint statement since the protests broke out, activists coordinating the demonstrations Friday demanded the abolition of the Baath Party monopoly on power. The authorities have blamed armed groups, infiltrators and militant organizations for provoking violence at demonstrations by firing on civilians and security forces.
