Protests erupted across much of the Arab world on Friday, the Muslim day of congregational prayer, with demonstrators killed in Syria and Yemen while Egyptians staged one of the biggest rallies since President Hosni Mubarak's fall. Syrian security forces killed 17 pro-democracy demonstrators and two were shot dead in Yemen.
In Saudi Arabia local Shias protested in the oil-producing east to call for the withdrawal of Saudi troops from neighbouring Bahrain. In Cairo's Tahrir Square, perhaps the spiritual home of the Arab protest movement, crowds demanded Mubarak's prosecution as discontent with military rule grows; but in Oman heavy security prevented a planned demonstration after Friday prayers.
Friday has become a peak day of protest for many Arabs since popular demands for freedom, democracy and an end to corruption began in Tunisia late last year and spread across the region. In Syria, security forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators in the southern city of Deraa as protests against President Bashar al-Assad flared in several towns.
A hospital source and an activist reported 17 dead in Deraa, where protests began last month before spreading across the country. "There were snipers on roofs. Gunfire was heavy. The injured are being taken to homes. No one trusts putting his relative in a hospital in these circumstances," said a witness, who spoke to Reuters by telephone.
Authorities have blamed armed groups for the violence, and state television broadcast footage of masked gunmen in plain clothes it said fired at security forces and civilians alike. It said a policeman and an ambulance driver were killed. Syria has prevented other media reporting from Deraa. In eastern Syria, ethnic Kurds demonstrated for reform despite Assad's offer this week to ease rules which bar many of them from obtaining citizenship, activists said.
NO ORDERS OR INTERVENTION Violence also broke out in Yemen as crowds demanded the overthrow of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Two people were shot dead and 25 wounded by gunfire in the southern city of Taiz, hospital sources said. But Saleh rejected any aspect of a Gulf Arab mediation plan for talks with the opposition that would aim to end his 32-year rule. "The Yemeni people are free to accept mediation from their brothers and friends, but they reject taking orders or intervention," Saleh said in a statement. Elsewhere, the day of protest was more peaceful.
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