President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
ousting.
Activists said at least 15 people were killed and many more injured in demonstrations following Friday prayers.
People had barely come out of Ibn Affan Mosque in the Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
suburb of Al Qusweh, chanting for a toppling of the regime when security forces, apparently without warning, opened fire on the crowd killing, six people and wounding 15, Mohammed Suliman, a human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of
freedomat the convenience of the state...
activist, told Al Jizz.
Suliman said that ambulances drove the maimed to the headquarters of the military secret service, rather than the hospital.
"We have protested peacefully in Al Qusweh for three months and now we are being accused of having gangsters among us - but we have none.
"We don't regard the president as legitimate," said Suliman, rejecting a speech made by Assad on Monday in which he announced a general amnesty for those involved in protests.
"His speech didn't make any sense. He gave his speech on Monday and today we witnessed many killed - the only speech now that will make any sense is his resignation speech."
Al Jizz is unable to verify reports from Syria because of restrictions on reporting in the country.
More deaths occurred in the central city of Homs, according to Omar Idilbi of the Local Co-ordination Committees which track the Syrian protests.
"Our revolution is strong! Assad has lost legitimacy!" protesters chanted in the Damascus suburb of Zabadani, according to video posted on YouTube.
Around 5,000 people were demonstrating in Zabadani despite a heavy security presence, an activist told Al Jizz. The protesters were singing the Syrian national anthem and calling for the toppling of the regime.
The military crackdown, which activists say has killed 1,400 people, has failed to silence a pro-democracy movement that has now lasted more than 100 days.
In northern Syria, activists said at least 15,000 people held a protest on the highway linking the country's two main cities, Damascus and Aleppo.
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
'Strong security presence'
Thousands marched in Amouda and Qamishli in the northeast and in other provinces, Mustafa Osso, a Syria-based human rights activist, said.
Dissidents reported a strong security presence in many locations. In Homs, all roads leading to the city centre were reported blocked.
Protesters in Damascus also carried a banner that read, "Oh germs and rats of the world, unite," taking up terms used by Assad, who likened some of Syria's troubles to a "germ" to be fought off, and Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy,
... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ...
who described his country's protesters as rats.
The Syrian government blames foreign conspirators and thugs for the unrest, but protesters deny any foreign influence in their movement.
The protests, which have occurred every Friday after weekly Mohammedan prayers, come as Syrian refugees stream across the border into Turkey to escape a military sweep in Syria's northwest.
More than 1,500 Syrian refugees crossed into neighbouring Turkey on Thursday alone, boosting the number sheltered in Turkey to more than 11,700.
New sanctions
International condemnation of Syria's government has been mounting steadily in recent weeks.
The European Union on Friday extended sanctions against those supporting the government crackdown, including three members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another John Quincy Adams...
, the US secretary of state, on Thursday warned Damascus to pull its troops back from the Turkish border, where concerns grew of possible confrontations with Turkish troops.
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Anticipating an exodus from Syria's second city, Aleppo, Turkish officials were setting up a sixth camp with up to 800 tents near a border crossing.
Turkish foreign minister Davutoglu told news hounds on Friday he had conveyed Turkey's "concerns and thoughts" about the situation at the border in a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart.
He said he would continue to talk to Syrian officials to ensure that "reforms and peace are brought about as soon as possible".
"We hope that Syria is successful in renewing itself in a stable manner and comes out of the situation stronger. We will do all that we can to help," he said.