Syrian police arrest opposition leader amid protests

From the capital of Damascus to cities in central and southern Syria and in the the Kurdish east, thousands took to the street at prayers on Friday to demand the ousting of Assad.

In Damascus, the government’s security forces detained Mr Seif (pictured below) at a demonstration in the Midan district, according to his daughter.

“My father was shoved into a bus with other protestors who were detained during the demonstration near the al-Hassan mosque,” said Jumana Seif.

Around 2,000 residents of the Saqba suburb of the capital marched through its main streets, demanding the release of hundreds of relatives arrested by security forces in the last few days.

A witness said some of the demonstrators were trying to march toward central Damascus, four miles away, but security forces had blocked all the roads leading to the capital from the suburbs.

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And in the town of Tel, just north of Damascus, witnesses said security forces also opened fire at protesters, wounding demonstrators.

The army, which stormed the southern city of Deraa last month to crush resistance in what is being called the bloodiest episode thus far of the seven-week uprising, deployed tanks in the central city of Homs.

Human rights campaigners say army, security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad had killed at least 560 civilians during pro-democracy demonstrations that started in March. Thousands have been arrested and beaten, including the elderly, women and children, they said.

Officials give a much lower death toll. They say that half the fatalities have been soldiers and police and blame “armed terrorist groups” for the violence.

Western condemnation

Western powers, which had sought for several years to engage Damascus and loosen its anti-Israel alliances with Iran and the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, condemned the bloodshed.

The United States, which called the army crackdown in Deraa “barbaric”, imposed further targeted sanctions last week against Syrian officials and Europe’s main powers have been pushing for similar European Union measures.

Human Rights Watch – citing figures from Syrian rights groups – said taht 350 people had been killed in Deraa. It urged authorities on Friday to “lift the siege” on the city and to halt what it called a nationwide campaign of arbitrary arrests.

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“Syria’s authorities think that they can beat and kill their way out of the crisis,” said HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson. “But with every illegal arrest, every killing of a protester, they are precipitating a larger crisis.”

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said he had raised the issue of the possible violation of human rights with Assad during a phone conversation on Thursday.

Ban said he had urged Assad to take decisive reform measures “before it was too late”.

“I raised also the possible violation of human rights, and that human rights should be fully protected of those people – peaceful demonstrators,” he said.