Six killed in Syria swoop; al-Assad supporters rally

Syrian security forces Thursday cracked down on opposition protesters in two flashpoint regions, reportedly killing at least six people, as pro-government Syrians rallied in a show of support for President Bashar al-Assad. A 12-year-old boy and three other people were killed by security forces during raids in the town of Dael, near the southern province of Daraa, said Omar Idlibi, an activist based in Lebanon.
The operation in Dael came a day after 5,000 people had demonstrated against the regime of al-Assad, he told dpa. The clampdown targeted the central region of Homs and Daraa, where security forces were hunting for wanted people and carrying out random arrests, according to opposition activists.
More than 100 people were arrested in Daraa on Thursday, they claimed, among them boys under the age of 16. Two civilians were killed in Homs, one in sniper fire and the other by troops, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement. Earlier Thursday, Idlibi said security forces had stormed the Bab Amr neighbourhood in Homs under heavy shelling, and that several houses in the area were set ablaze injuring dozens.
The activist claimed that 19 people have been killed in Homs since Wednesday. Reports from Syria cannot be independently verified as the authorities have banned foreign media from the country. Syrian state-run television broadcast images of a massive pro-al-Assad rally in the coastal city of Latakia. People were shown carrying Syrian flags and chanting: "God bless you Bashar."
More than 3,000 people, including at least 187 children, have been killed in the government's clampdown on pro-democracy protests since they began in mid-March, according to the United Nations. On Thursday, prominent Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat, who was attacked in late August by masked gunmen believed to be members of the Syrian security forces, and Syrian activist Asmaa Zatouni were awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament. Farzat and Zatouni were among five Arab Spring activists who have won the Sakharov Prize, which is awarded to campaigners for freedom. The three others were from Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.