Tens of thousands of activists took to the streets of Aleppo and Idlib yesterday, braving the gunfire of Syrian troops, as at least 28 people were killed across the country, monitors said.
The latest violence came as Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria who brokered a repeatedly violated ceasefire last month, finalised plans to return to Damascus. Mr Annan, who arranged the six-point peace plan, will travel to Syria “soon” as he continues efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.
For the first time in the region, helicopter gunships fired on rebel-controlled mountain villages in the Latakia area of northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border, wounding at least 20 people, the Observatory said.
At least four policemen were killed in clashes with rebels in Kansebba, in the same area, it said.
For the second consecutive day yesterday, “tens of thousands of people marched in Aleppo city and province,” calling for regime change, said the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman.
“They are the most important protests in Aleppo” since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March last year, he added, saying 12 separate demonstrations had taken place in Syria’s second city.
Syrian troops fired on the protesters in the northern city with live rounds and tear gas, killing at least one and wounding dozens, the Britain-based Observatory said.
Another four civilians including two children were also killed by gunfire in Aleppo, the rights watchdog added.
In northwestern Idlib province, tens of thousands also marched in the rebel-held localities of Maaret al-Numan, Saraqe, Kafrnoubol, Hass and Sarge, Mr Abdel Rahman said.
And in southern Daraa province, birthplace of the uprising against Assad, troops also fired on demonstrators, several of whom were wounded in Inkhel as they emerged from mosques after weekly Friday prayers, the Observatory said.
Four civilians were killed in Homs, where activists took to the streets despite army shelling. Ten more people were killed in the province’s town of Houla, including two deserters.
Democracy activists had called for protests under the slogan: “Our next rendezvous: Damascus.”