Syrian forces kill 6 in mosque attack: residents

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

DAMASCUS, SYRIA—Syrian forces killed at least six people on Wednesday in an attack on a mosque in the southern city of Deraa, site of unprecedented protests challenging President Bashar al-Assad's Baathist rule, residents said.

Those killed included Ali Ghassab al-Mahamid, a doctor from a prominent Deraa family who went to the Omari mosque in the city's old quarter to help victims of the attack, which occurred just after midnight, said the residents, declining to be named.

It was not immediately clear whether the protesters had any weapons.

The attack brought to 10 the number of civilians killed by Syrian forces in confrontations with protesters who have mounted six days of demonstrations calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption in the country of 20 million.

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/958123--syrian-forces-kill-6-in-mosque-attack-residents?bn=1

[Baclava]

1. Send in B-2's with flying kittens and fruit baskets?

Nothing to see here...move along

[pampango]

2. Aljazeera: Deaths as Syrian forces 'storm mosque'

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/20113231127592364.html

Protesters calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption had said earlier that they were going to remain in the mosque until their demands were met. Mohammed Al Abdallah, an exiled Syrian rights activist living in the US, said he had been communicating with people in Daraa who told him that a doctor was among those killed. "Security forces opened fire, they used bombs and live ammunition," he told Al Jazeera. "There are many injuries, including women and children." He said electricity had been cut off before the attack and that security forces were preventing ambulances from entering the centre of Daraa, where the mosque is located.

Rula Amin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Damascus, said the incident was a "very serious development" that could trigger protests, and the prospect of further violence. She also said the use of violence against protesters indicated the government had abandoned its earlier offer of dialogue. "With the killing of these six people overnight, it seems that the government is opting for the choice of using force to crack down on the protesters not dialogue as it had indicated," she said.

She reported that there was a heavy security presence in Daraa, with the army, anti-terror police and riot police all deployed in the city. Journalists are not being allowed to visit the city, and several of those who attempted to do so last night had their equipment confiscated by authorities.

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on Syrian authorities to carry out a transparent probe into the crackdown and to halt the excessive use of force."We are greatly concerned by the recent killings of protesters in Syria and reiterate the need to put an immediate halt to the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, especially the use of live ammunition."

video at link