Six killed as Syrians to bury protest dead

Troops and snipers killed six civilians yesterday as Syrians prepared to bury scores of people killed in a “day of rage,” while the US and EU imposed sanctions on Damascus.

As the death toll from seven weeks of anti-regime protests rises, activists vowed to keep the pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, promising a new week of pro-democracy protests.

And 138 more members of Assad’s ruling Baath Party quit in protest at the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, according to collective resignation lists received by AFP in Nicosia.

At least 66 people were killed last Friday when tens of thousands of people demonstrated across Syria, activists said, while authorities said nine members of the security forces were shot dead by “terrorist groups”.

The Syrian Revolution 2011, a driving force of the protests which erupted March 15, said the blood of those “will not have been spilled in vain” and announced a schedule of protests for the week beginning today.

“The martyrs are eternal, but the criminals will end up in the dustbins of history after being judged and punished by the people,” the group said on its Facebook page. “Freedom is inexorably coming.”

Funerals for Friday’s “martyrs” would be held at 2.30 p.m. across Syria, it said. The activists said countrywide protests from today would kick off a “week of breaking the siege” – a reference to Daraa and the Damascus suburb of Douma which the military have controlled since last Monday.

Demonstrations would take place today in the southern protest hub town of Daraa and around Damascus tomorrow.

Rallies are planned for Tuesday in the northern towns of Banias and Jableh, Wednesday in Homs, Talbisseh and in Tall Kalakh on the border with Lebanon, and nationwide night vigils on Thursday.

Yesterday, six more civilians were killed when the army began pounding Daraa at dawn while snipers opened fire from rooftops on anyone venturing on the streets, activists said. “There are six dead” in Daraa, an activist said, quoting witnesses in the town. The town is besieged. Food, water and medicine are running out,” an activist said quoting witnesses in the town.

Water and power have been cut in Daraa as the situation worsened after between 3,000 and 5,000 troops backed by tanks stormed the town last Monday.