Syria has freed more than 450 political prisoners, including Islamists and Kurds, since the announcement on Tuesday of a general amnesty, a human rights activist said yesterday.
“Since the amnesty, more than 450 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience have been released, most of them Islamists and Kurds,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
However, 38 people, including six members of the Syrian security forces, were killed in 24 hours during clashes in the northwest town of Jisrash Shughur, a Syrian rights activist said yesterday.
“Thirty-eight people were killed in shootings in the region of Jisrash Shughur, 10 yesterday and 28 today,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
On Saturday, an activist in Jisrash Shughur said “security forces opened fire to scatter more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting after the funeral of a civilian killed on Friday” in protests at the nearby village of Has.
Rights groups say more than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in Syria since protests erupted in mid-March.
Damascus insists that the unrest is the work of “armed terrorist gangs” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.