21 dead in new day of Syria violence
2012-06-28 19:20
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Beirut - Violence killed at least 21 people, including 11 civilians, in Syria on Thursday after one of the bloodiest days of the 15-month revolt left nearly 150 dead, a human rights watchdog said.
Seven people, including one rebel, were killed in the Damascus suburb of Douma when troops surrounded it, meeting fierce resistance from rebel fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In the town of Irbin, four soldiers were killed in an ambush by rebels, the Britain-based Observatory said.
South of Damascus, one civilian was killed and dozens wounded in shelling by government forces of the town of Harak, it added.
In Deir Ezzor in the east, a child killed in shelling was one of two people who died amid fierce fighting between rebels and troops backed by helicopters in several neighbourhoods of the city, the watchdog said.
Four rebels were killed in clashes with troops and militia in Al-Hassan village in the central province of Homs, while two civilians were killed in shelling elsewhere in the province.
Overnight demonstrations
Elsewhere in central Syria, regime forces and militia stormed several villages in Hama province.
And in the northwestern province of Idlib, a rebel fighter was killed, the Observatory said.
The deaths came after at least 149 people, 77 of them civilians, were killed on Wednesday in one of the bloodiest days of the uprising, the Observatory said.
The bloodshed sparked overnight demonstrations in a string of cities, including Damascus and the second-largest city Aleppo, said the Local Co-ordination CommitteeS (LCC), which organise protests on the ground.
In one video uploaded to YouTube, which the LCC said was filmed in the Rukneddin district of Damascus, dozens of protesters are seen raising the flag of the revolution and shouting: "Come come, O freedom!"
In another clip, which the the LCC said was filmed in the southern city of Daraa, dozens of demonstrators are seen chanting: "It is better to die than live without dignity!"
More than 15 800 people have been killed in Syria, the majority of them civilians, since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in March last year, according to the Observatory's figures.
