‘Eight killed’ in Syria protests

There have been reports of protests across Syria, including in the coastal town of Banias

Syrian security forces have opened fire on anti-government protesters, killing at least four people,reports say.

The incidents occurred in a suburb of the capital Damascus and a town in the south after Friday prayers.

Last Friday after prayers, at least 44 people died after demonstrations calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed since the uprising began ten weeks ago.

At least three people died in Qatana, a suburb of Damascus, where some 1,500 people had gathered to protest and one person was killed in the town of Zabadani, near the Lebanese border.

Night-time protests

According to the Local Co-ordination Committees in Syria, which help organise the protests, a further four people were killed in the southern village of Dael, AP reports.

There were also reports of protests in the cities of Baniyas, Homs and Rastan with some 5,000 people gathering in Deir Ezzor.

According to AP, live rounds were fired on a late-night protest in the town of Deraa overnight on Thursday.

Many activists are reported to be choosing to demonstrate under the cover of nightfall when there are fewer security officials on the streets.

“We refuse to let them sleep,” a 28-year-old Dael resident said of the security forces, according to AP.

“We drive them crazy: as soon as they come to the neighbourhood we go quiet and they get lost. And then we start again when they leave,” he said.

Syria has banned foreign journalists, making it difficult to verify eyewitness accounts. Syrian authorities insist they are pursuing “armed terrorist gangs”.

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