DAMASCUS: Activists reported widespread anti-regime protests across Syria on Tuesday on the first day of the feast marking the end of Ramadan, with at least seven people killed by gunfire from security forces.
The latest flare-up came as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged President Bashar al-Assad to stop the violent crackdown on protesters and a day after the European Union moved to ban oil imports from Syria.
The Local Coordination Committees said in a statement that "seven people were killed on the first day of Eid al-Fitr in Syria, including four in the town of Al-Harra and two in Inkhil, in the Daraa province, and one in the city of Homs."
Daraa is a flashpoint province in southern Syria where pro-democracy protests that have rattled the autocratic regime first erupted in mid-March.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, reported "three people were killed and nine wounded when security forces opened fire to disperse a huge demonstration in Al-Harra after the (first) Eid al-Fitr prayers" marking the end of the holy fasting Muslim month.
The Committees group said protesters rallied after the early morning prayers that are traditionally held on the first day of Eid, with protests reported in Nawa, Dael and other districts of Daraa.
It said that although Nawa's main Imam al-Nawawi mosque was closed, worshippers gathered outside before staging a protest, and that soldiers later surrounded them and opened fire.
The Committees statement said a "huge" protest formed as worshippers emerged from Al-Omari mosque in Daraa and marched to the cemetery. Muslims traditionally visit their dead on the first day of the feast.
In the Daraa village of Dael, "children covered in shrouds, instead of (new) Eid clothes, led a protest of some 10,000 people who emerged from the local mosque," the Committees statement said.
It also reported anti-regime demonstrations in Damascus and its suburbs, in Syria's second city Aleppo, in Deir Ezzor in the east, the port of Latakia and Qamishli in the north.
The Committees also reported demonstrations in the Damascus neighbourhoods of Qaboon and Qadissiya, and said security forces were deployed outside Barza, another district in the capital.
"Thousands marched in the city of Palmyra, heading for the cemetery after the Eid prayers" and chanting anti-regime slogans, the group said, adding that in Hama there was "intermittent gunfire" to prevent demonstrations.
Massive security deployments were also reported in the central flashpoint province of Homs, and gunfire near the citadel of Homs city itself, where communications were largely cut.
On the last day of Ramadan on Monday, 17 people were killed and dozens wounded as troops and security forces conducted raids across the country, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
On Tuesday it said reinforcements were sent to the village of Bayda where more than 30 people were arrested.
"A huge protest took place in Bayda and security forces opened fire" on demonstrators, it said.
Activists on Facebook group The Syrian Revolution 2011 had called for demonstrations after Eid al-Fitr prayers.
More than 2,200 people have been killed in the Syrian regime's crackdown on pro-democracy protests since mid-March, according to UN figures.
Ashton "expresses her continued deep concern about the violence perpetrated by the Syrian regime against peaceful demonstrators, human rights activists, and the Syrian people at large," her spokesman in Brussels said in a statement.
"She renews her unequivocal condemnation of the brutal repression," the spokesman said a day after EU states agreed in principle to ban oil imports from Syria, a measure that is expected to be formally adopted this week.
Assad's regime, which insists it is confronting "armed terrorist gangs," came under harsh criticism at the weekend from the Arab League and from its neighbour Turkey.
On Sunday, the League announced plans to send its chief Nabil al-Arabi to Damascus to help solve the crisis, urging Syria to "follow the way of reason before it is too late."
Washington said Assad is "increasingly isolated" internationally, because of the toughening Arab and Turkish positions.
"With regard to the statements by Turkish President (Abdullah) Gul, the Arab League's very strong statement over the weekend... Assad is increasingly isolated," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011
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