Syrian security forces killed at least two mourners and wounded several others when they fired on the funeral of murdered Kurdish opposition figure Meshaal Tamo yesterday, activists said.
A clear escalation of regime tactics
The shooting came as dissidents lobbied in Cairo for the recognition of newly-formed opposition front, the Syrian National Council (SNC), of which Tamo was a member.
“Two people were killed during a shooting against the funeral procession of the martyr Meshaal Tamo in the city of Qamishli,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement, adding that several others were wounded.
The funeral for Tamo, who was gunned down last Friday in Qamishli in the north, became a mass rally with more than 50,000 demonstrators calling for fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.
Tamo founded the liberal Kurdish Future Party, which considers Kurds an integral part of Syria, and had been recently released after three-and-a-half years in prison.
His killing also sparked indignation abroad.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton firmly condemned the murder.
“The High Representative condemns in the strongest terms the murder,” a statement issued on her behalf said, adding that Tamo’s death “follows other targeted assassinations in the past days, which are totally unacceptable.
“These appalling crimes further add to the EU’s grave concern over the situation in Syria. All those responsible for and complicit in these crimes must be held accountable.”
In Beirut, 50 activists gathered outside the Syrian embassy to demand that Assad step down, and in Vienna 11 people were arrested overnight for invading Damascus’s embassy and demonstrating on a balcony. The US last Friday said Assad’s regime is escalating its tactics against the opposition with bold attacks on its leaders, and France said it was “shocked” by the news Tamo’s murder.
“This is a clear escalation of regime tactics,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
“We are shocked by the assassination of opposition figure Meshaal Tamo... and by the attack on opposition figure Riad Seif,” who was beaten by a mob outside a mosque in Damascus, a French foreign ministry spokesman said.
The Local Coordination Committees inside Syria, meanwhile, accused Assad’s regime of trying to “physically eliminate” opposition figures and “taking advantage of the laxity of the international community.”
The official SANA news agency last Friday reported “the assassination” of Tamo and said he was killed “by gunmen in a black car who fired at his car”.