Mass arrests in Syria protest hub

Jordanians have rallied in a border town near Deraa as tanks and troops sealed off the area

Syrian security forces killed 10 people and arrested 499 others in house-to-house raids in Deraa on Sunday, an army spokesman has said.

Residents said men aged between 15 and 40 were being arrested, handcuffed and bussed to a detention centre.

Last week the army used tanks to take control of Deraa, the city at the heart of protests against the repressive rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Rights groups say 560 people have been killed in cities across the country.

On Sunday, British Prime Minister David Cameron denounced the “disgraceful” crackdown against pro-democracy protests which began six weeks ago, inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

The US last week blocked the assets of a number of top Syrian officials as well as Mr Assad’s brother, Maher, who commands the Syrian army’s feared Fourth Division.

Residents of Deraa told Reuters news agency they had seen packed busloads of handcuffed and hooded young men being taken in the direction of a large detention centre in the city run by the security services.

“They are arresting all males above 15 years [old]. They only have old security tactics and they are acting on revenge,” said a prominent lawyer in Deraa who did not want to be identified further.

The raids come after the army seized control of Deraa’s Omari mosque, which had become a centre for anti-government protests in the city.

The government says nearly 80 security personnel have died in clashes with protesters

State news agency Sana said on Monday that army units had tracked down “terrorist groups”, killing 10 members and arresting 499 of them. Two members of the security forces were killed in the raids, Sana said.

More than 70 people have been killed in Deraa since Friday, according to reports from residents and rights groups.

Despite the use of force Syrians have kept up protests in several cities, including the central city of Homs, where thousands marched on Sunday, and in Rastan, to the north, where funerals were held for 17 men killed during Friday protests.

In the Kurdish village of Karbawi, near Qamishli in the country’s north, some 2,000 people attended the funeral of 20-year-old conscript Ahmad Fanar Mustafa. His father has accused security forces of killing him for refusing to take part in the repression.

Last week hundreds of members of Mr Assad’s ruling Baath Party resigned over the crackdown.

Mr Assad’s government blames militants and “external forces” for the unrest, which it says have left nearly 80 security personnel dead.

On Monday authorities set a deadline of 15 May for people who had committed “unlawful acts” to give themselves up, the AFP news agency reported.

The protests, which began on 15 March, pose the most serious challenge to four decades of rule by the Assad family in one of the Arab world’s most repressive and tightly-controlled countries.

Foreign journalists are not being allowed into the country, and the exact picture of what is happening remains unclear.

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