Damascus: At least 27 people including 19 security personnel were killed Friday in a fresh wave of violent clashes between Syrian security forces and anti government protesters.
Meanwhile, state run television reported that 19 policemen were killed and 75 others wounded in the southern city of Daraa.
Protesters took to the street of Daraa, Homs and Latakia were fired at with machine guns, media reports said. ‘Death is better than humiliation,’ Daraa’s protesters chanted, according to the Syrian Revolution 2011 group.
While the exact number of casualties could not be immediately confirmed, the Syrian National Network posted on its Facebook page that the ‘state-run hospital in Daraa has received bodies of 40 protesters who were killed today by security forces.’
The Friday’s protests come despite a series of reforms ordered by al- Assad, who has been in power since 2000, following the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad.
Communication links in Daraa have been cut off.
Earlier Friday, state television showed images of masked gunmen firing at people, and reported that ‘an unknown third party’ was shooting at both the demonstrators and security forces after Friday prayers.
A police station in the Taldo quarter of Homs was set on fire and other government buildings were attacked, just days after President Bashar al-Assad sacked the governor.
This month, the president moved to appease the protesters by sacking the cabinet and several regional governors, promising higher salaries, releasing political prisoners and setting up a committee to begin looking into repealing a controversial emergency law.
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