Syrian forces reportedly fire on protestors!
BEIRUT, Lebanon (PNN) - July 14, 2011 - Syrian security forces killed at least 14 protesters Friday as hundreds of thousands flooded the streets nationwide in the largest anti-government demonstrations since the uprising began more than four months ago, according to unnamed witnesses and activists.
In a significant show of the uprising's strength, thousands of protesters turned out in the capital, Damascus, the seat of the regime's power, which has been relatively quiet so far.
The crowds also turned out in areas where the government crackdown has been most intense, a sign that President Bashar Assad's forces cannot smother the increasingly defiant uprising.
The protests stretched from Damascus and its suburbs to Hasakeh and Idlib province in the north, Daraa in the south and Latakia on the coast. Thousands converged on the flashpoint cities of Homs and Hama in central Syria, among other areas across the nation of 22 million.
"All hell broke loose, the firing was intense," another unnamed activist in Daraa reportedly said, asking that his name not be published for fear of government reprisals.
The uprising is the boldest challenge to the Assad family's 40-year dynasty in Syria, one of the most authoritarian states in the Middle East.
