Syrian security forces fired on protesters killing at least nine as thousands surged onto the streets across the nation after Friday prayers to demand the fall of President Bashar al-Assad's regime. The European Union also turned the heat on the Syrian regime, warning that its legitimacy was undermined by a brutal crackdown and imposing sanctions on three of its Iranian military allies.
The crackdown on dissent has sent nearly 12,000 Syrians fleeing to safety in neighbouring Turkey, prompting concerns from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who warned of the risk of a regional escalation. In response to Facebook calls, thousands of protesters emerged from mosques in major centres Friday afternoon to demand that Assad's regime go, activists said.
"Bashar is no longer my president and his government no longer represents me," was the message posted on the page of the Facebook group Syrian Revolution 2011, one of the motors of the protests. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other rights activists at least nine people were killed when security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrations in Damascus, the town of Kiswah south of the capital, and the central city of Homs.
Demonstrations rocked many Syrian cities, including the eastern oil hub of Deir Ezzor where 30,000 protesters filled the streets, while thousands demonstrated in neighbouring Median, Abdel Rahman said. The official SANA news agency reported that "several members of the security forces were hit by gunfire in Kiswah."
Syrian rights groups say that more than 1,300 people have been killed while 10,000 have been arrested in the regime's brutal crackdown against dissent since the protests - now in their fourth month - erupted. The brutality of the crackdown has triggered waves of global condemnation and prompted the United States and the European Union to slap sanctions on Syrian leaders, amid efforts to push for a UN Security Council vote.
EU leaders holding a summit in Brussels were expected on Friday to adopt a declaration condemning the "unacceptable and shocking violence the Syrian regime continues to apply on its own citizen," said a draft obtained by AFP. "By choosing a path of repression instead of fulfilling its own promises on broad reforms, the regime is calling its legitimacy into question," it said. "Those responsible for crimes and violence against civilians shall be held accountable."
The EU declaration also calls for the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution slamming the crackdown - a move opposed by veto-wielding member Russia. The EU this week issued fresh sanctions against Syria, which expanded a blacklist targeting 23 top leaders including the embattled president Assad. Three commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard - including the head of the elite group, Brigadier Mohammad Ali Jafari - were added to the list along with four Syrians and four businesses. The Iranian commanders are accused of "providing equipment and support to help the Syria regime suppress protests in Syria," according to the EU official Journal.
Syria has reacted angrily to the EU sanctions, with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem saying this week they were "equivalent to war" and denying receiving assistance from Iran. Meanwhile the number of Syrians sheltering in Turkey has approached 12,000 after some 1,500 refugees poured across the border on Thursday and Friday, officials said in Ankara.
The influx has triggered concern in Washington, particularly as the flow came after Syrian troops stormed border villages including Khirbet al-Joz, where many of the displaced had massed, according to activists. Clinton said the Syrian troop build-up was "worrisome" and could increase the changes of a border clash and "only exacerbate the already unstable refugee situation in Syria."
The exodus has prompted Turkey to build a giant tent city along the border with Syria to expand a Red Crescent camp where more than 200 tents have already been erected. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu meanwhile said that Ankara is in continuing contact with Syria to launch reforms and end the bloody turmoil, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported Friday.