Syrian forces kill 12 more civilians

Syrian troops killed 12 civilians yesterday, five of whom were attending a funeral in Damascus and were caught up in the regime’s continuing crackdown on dissent, a human rights group said.

Starting at dawn, when the crackle of gunfire could be heard sustained for half an hour, the death toll steadily rose through the day.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: “Six civilians were killed in the Damascus neighbourhood of Barzeh, five of whom were slain by security forces who fired on the funeral of a young man.

“Three other civilians perished under the bullet of the regime’s forces at Inkhel, in the southern Daraa region, and seven protesters were wounded in the neighbouring locality of Jassem who were protesting against the repression,” it added.

Listing the latest dead, the Britain-based Observatory said two more civilians were shot and killed in Homs – the besieged flashpoint city 160 kilometres north of Damascus – and one civilian in Abu Kamal in the east, killed during checks and questioning by security forces.

Three people, one of them a child, died under the bullets of the regime’s forces in the southern region of Daraa, birthplace of the eight-month-old protest movement against President Bashar al-Assad, the Observatory said in a statement.

The continuing killing – which on Tuesday resulted in another 20 bodies – has increased international anger at Syria which only last week signed up to an Arab League peace plan which called for an end to violence.

Under the plan, Damascus would also release those detained for protesting, and withdraw all Syrian forces from towns and cities. It says it has already released more than 500.

But since signing the Arab roadmap, up to Tuesday according to the United Nations, Syrian forces have killed another 60 people, adding to the UN estimate of 3,500 who have died in the crackdown on protests which erupted in mid-March.