Syrian forces killed at least three protesters on Saturday as tens of thousands of people marched again to demand the removal of President Bashar al-Assad on a major religious occasion, activists and residents said. Syria's ally Iran said Assad needed to respond to the "legitimate demands of the people" after five months of protests and Arab League foreign ministers were expected to call on him to stop military operations against protests, a delegate said.
--- Syria must answer 'legitimate demands' of its people: Iran
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), citing witnesses, said more demonstrations had broken out in Damascus overnight and on Saturday morning than at any time since the pro-democracy uprising erupted in March. Two of the three were killed as Assad's forces fired live ammunition to disperse demonstrators streaming from mosques in the city of Qusair and Latakia port after al-Qadr prayers, the night Muslims believe the Prophet received the Koran.
At the al-Rifai mosque in the upscale Damascus district of Kfar Sousa, where the main secret police headquarters are located, witnesses said hundreds of security police and militiamen loyal to Assad attacked worshippers who tried to demonstrate as al-Qadr prayers finished around dawn.
"Some of the 'amn' (security) went on the roof and began firing from their AK-47s to scare the crowd. Around 10 people were wounded, with two hit by bullets in the neck and chest," a cleric who lives in the area told Reuters by phone. SOHR, headed by dissident Rami Abdelrahman, said Syrian forces fired at a funeral turned protest on Saturday in the town of Kfar Roumeh in the north-western Idlib province bordering Turkey, wounding at least ten. The organisation said another man was killed in raids and house-to-house arrests in the nearby town of Kfar Nubul.
"Besides the killings, another tragedy in Syria is the tens of thousands of people arrested since the beginning of uprising, many of whose whereabouts are unknown," Abdelrahman told Reuters. Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Assad and other leaders needed to respond to their people. "We believe developments in the region's countries stem from dissatisfaction and discontent of the peoples in those countries," ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.
"The governments must be responsive to the legitimate demands of the people in these countries, be it Syria, Yemen or other countries," he said. A delegate to the Arab League in Cairo said Arab foreign ministers would step up pressure on Assad later on Saturday with a demand he end the crackdown on demonstrators.