AFP/Damascus
Human rights activists said at least 15 people were killed yesterday in the volatile Syrian city of Daraa, the focal point of a week of anti-regime protests.
A Syrian flag flutters from the minaret of Omari mosque in the old city of Deraa on Tuesday
Activists and residents said security forces opened fire on protesters outside the Omari mosque early yesterday, after hundreds of people had gathered overnight to prevent police from storming it, and that shooting had continued sporadically over the course of the day.
One activist said “at least nine people were killed in the attack on the mosque, including a child, a woman and two members of the security forces,” and that six more were killed in attacks on a funeral procession later in the day.
“At least 13 were killed in the overnight attack on the mosque, and we estimate five or six were shot dead during the funeral procession,” said another activist.
Earlier, an AFP reporter saw two bodies being brought into the city hospital shortly after gunfire broke out in the afternoon around the mosque, where activists have been holed up for a week.
An 11-year-old girl was also killed by a stray bullet when security forces allegedly opened fire on a funeral procession yesterday for two of those killed overnight, the activist said.
The government of President Bashar al-Assad has promised to probe the Daraa killings, but analysts warn that the situation is turning increasingly volatile.
But state-run television reported that Assad had fired Daraa Governor Faysal Ahmed Khaltoum, days after young protesters burned down the local courthouse.
Daraa, a tribal city near the Jordanian border, has witnessed daily protests for the past week against the regime of Assad, whose Baath party has ruled Syria uncontested for 40 years.
Syria, a country infamous for its iron grip on security that is still under a 1963 emergency law banning demonstrations, is the latest state in the Middle East to witness an uprising against a long-running autocratic regime.
The official Sana news agency gave a different version of the overnight attack, saying it was carried out by an “armed gang” and left four people dead including a security force member.
“An armed gang after midnight attacked a medical team in an ambulance at the Omari mosque, killing a doctor, a paramedic and the driver,” before police intervened and made some arrests, said the report.
There was no way to verify the reports, but an AFP correspondent saw a damaged ambulance on a main street of Daraa amid massive security yesterday.
“It looks like they are going to clean the streets (of the activists) today,” said a witness, in his 40s, who looked visibly shaken after a round of gunfire yesterday afternoon.
The protesters have not yet clearly been identified, and authorities in Daraa accuse them of being Salafists, a branch of Sunni Islam which seeks to restore rules common in the early days of the faith.
State television showed footage of what it said was a stockpile of weapons inside the mosque including guns, grenades and ammunition.
While life in the capital Damascus remained unaffected yesterday, Daraa’s streets were tense and empty.
Most shops remained closed as anti-terrorism squads patrolled the 250,000-strong city.
All entries to Daraa had been sealed off by a military checkpoint, and vehicles granted access to the town had to pass through two separate intelligence checkpoints manned by armed plainclothes forces.
There was also no mobile phone network coverage in the city yesterday.
