102 Civilians, 5 Troops Dead as Thousands Rally in Damascus
Syrian security forces killed 102 civilians across the country on Tuesday, among them 35 in a "massacre" in the central region of Hama, as five regime soldiers were killed in fighting with deserters in the restive southern province of Daraa, activists and a rights group said.
Thirty-seven civilians were killed in the central province of Hama, among them 35 in a massacre in the town of Halfaya, and 50 civilians were killed in the central opposition bastion Homs, among them 26 in the besieged neighborhood of Baba Amr, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
Elsewhere, six civilians were killed in the northern province of Aleppo, five in the northwestern province of Idlib, three in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour and one in the southern province of Daraa, the LCC said.
"Five soldiers were killed and three others wounded in fighting which broke out at 3.00 am (0100 GMT) in the (Daraa province) village of Dael with a group of deserters some of whom were wounded," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Shooting continued for several hours, it added, with Syrian troops firing on the town in Daraa, the cradle of the protests that erupted against President Bashar al-Assad's regime in March last year.
Separately, in the flashpoint central city of Homs, under assault by regime forces for more than three weeks, the Observatory and activists reported fresh shelling on Tuesday morning.
The rebel-held Baba Amr district was "bombarded for the 25th straight day by regime forces," according to a post by activists on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page.
"The shells are falling and the world watches," said an activist in a video showing columns of black smoke rising from bombed buildings.
Explosions were also heard in the Khaldiyeh and Karm al-Zaytoun districts, while fighting broke out in Hamidiyeh, another embattled Homs neighborhood, between deserters who control a large part of it and regular troops, the same source said.
The Observatory on Monday reported more than 100 people killed across Syria, including 11 members of the security forces, and 68 civilians in what the Britain-based monitoring group called a "massacre" in Homs province.
Meanwhile, thousands of mourners took to the streets of the Syrian capital on Tuesday for the funerals of civilians killed in the regime's crackdown on dissent, activists said.
"Thousands of people attended at noon the funeral of two martyrs killed on Sunday and Monday in Kfar Sousa," a residential neighborhood in western Damascus, said Mohammed al-Shami.
"The protesters were surrounded by security agents who threw tear-gas grenades," said the spokesman of the Damascus chapter of the Local Coordination Committees.
The head of the Observatory said 5,000 people took part in the funeral protest.
"At least 5,000 people, including a large number of students, marched in Kfar Sousa," said Rami Abdul Rahman.
Damascus has seen relatively few protests since the dissent movement against the Assad regime erupted nearly a year ago.
"The number of protests is increasing as the repression worsens," said Abdul Rahman.
Hundreds of protesters also filled the streets of the historic neighborhood of Midan on Tuesday for the funeral of another civilian killed by regime forces, Shami said.
Mourners emerged from mosques and took to the streets, he said.
Demonstrations were also reported in the districts of Barzeh, Zamalka and Irbin near Damascus despite a massive deployment of security sources, activists said.
According to the Observatory, more than 30 students were arrested at Damascus University.
Also on Tuesday, Red Cross and Red Crescent rescuers left the rebel city of Homs after talks to evacuate trapped Western journalists foundered, spokesman for the two aid groups said.
"Our team returned to Damascus at around 2:30 pm (1230 GMT) after negotiations yesterday and today with a sheikh (religious official) who was serving as an intermediary," to evacuate the journalists, Abdul Rahman Attar told AFP.
"He asked for food and medical supplies for the residents of Baba Amr and our team accepted. We asked in return to meet the journalists, but he refused," Attar added.
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Damascus said its delegates had left Homs for the same reasons.
"The ICRC team has returned. The negotiations have been halted and the situation is very tense in Baba Amr," the rebel stronghold of Homs where journalists are believed trapped, said ICRC spokesman Saleh Dabbakeh.
There are three Western reporters trapped in Baba Amr, a rebel stronghold of Homs, where a rocket attack last week on a makeshift media center also killed two other journalists.
Attar confirmed that British photographer Paul Conroy was successfully smuggled out of Homs across the border with Lebanon, where the international NGO Avaaz earlier said he was "safe."
President Nicolas Sarkozy and a Lebanese official, meanwhile, confirmed that wounded French reporter Edith Bouvier had also crossed into Lebanon.
The French journalist works for the daily Le Figaro and was wounded last week in a rocket attack on a makeshift media center in the Homs rebel stronghold of Baba Amr.
Conroy was also wounded in that attack which killed veteran U.S. reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.
Two other journalists trapped in Homs are William Daniels, a photographer who also was on assignment for Le Figaro, and Spaniard Javier Espinosa who works for the Spanish daily El Mundo.
"It's a real shame but I have the impression that those inside Baba Amr are not being very clear with us," Attar said, in apparent reference to the people his team were negotiating with.
Conroy was safely smuggled across the border to Lebanon from Homs earlier.
"The Sunday Times can confirm that the photographer Paul Conroy is safe and in Lebanon. He is in good shape and good spirits," a spokeswoman for the newspaper said in London.
Wissam Tarif of the international activist organization Avaaz said it coordinated his rescue from the battered city of Homs in central Syria and across the border into Lebanon.
"Avaaz coordinated with Syrian activists Conroy's exit from Homs and his arrival in Lebanon," Tarif told AFP in Beirut.
Conroy's father also told British media that his son escaped to Lebanon. "We've just had word from Beirut," Les Conroy said.
Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse
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