114 Dead in Clashes, Blast as Protesters Tell Assad 'You'll Die in Syria'

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  • W460
  • W460
  • W460

At least 114 people were killed in violence across Syria on Friday as thousands of anti-regime protesters took to the streets, monitors said.

The Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists on the ground, said regime forces killed at least 90 people in several regions.

Thirty people were killed in Deir Ezzor in the east, 16 in Damascus and its countryside, 13 in Aleppo in the north, eight in Daraa in the south, eight in the central province of Hama, six in the central province of Homs, six in the northwestern Idlib, one in al-Raqqa in the northeast, one in the neighboring al-Hasakeh and one in Quneitra which is located in the small part of the Golan Heights that is not occupied by Israel, the LCC said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 12 civilians were killed in shelling of a village in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, with a video released by activists showing bloodied corpses, including at least one of a child, lying in the middle of a road.

Warplanes were meanwhile flying over Damascus to bomb targets in rebel-held suburbs, an Agence France Presse correspondent said, and heavy explosions could be heard around the capital in the early morning.

Some of the heaviest fighting saw at least 20 Syrian soldiers killed over the Ras al-Ain border post, one of only two crossings on the Turkish border still in regime hands, the Observatory said.

Fighting over the post left at least 16 Syrian soldiers and 10 rebels dead on Thursday, the Observatory said, and forced thousands to flee.

Meanwhile, a car bomb outside a mayor's office in the town of Muadamiyat al-Sham south of Damascus killed four civilians, according to the Britain-based rights group.

A woman was among those killed in the town, about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of the Syrian capital.

Despite the raging violence, thousands of protesters rallied on Friday, with many mocking Assad's "live and die" remarks.

"Bashar, you will die in Syria, but you won't be buried in the ground, you will be thrown in the dustbin of history!" read one sign held by protesters in the central city of Hama.

On Thursday, 142 people were killed in violence across the country, including 56 civilians, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground.

Among the heaviest clashes on Thursday were battles for control of the mainly Kurdish northeastern town of Ras al-Ain on the Turkish border that killed 16 soldiers and 10 rebels, according to the Observatory.

A Turkish foreign ministry official told AFP that 8,000 refugees had fled to Turkey from the area overnight and that six Turkish civilians had been wounded by shots from across the border.

The Observatory says more than 37,000 people have died since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, first as a protest movement and then an armed rebellion after the regime cracked down on demonstrations.

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