BEIRUT — Thousands of Syrians flooded the streets across the country Friday, defying an unrelenting government crackdown that has failed to crush a two-month uprising against the country’s authoritarian regime. Human-rights activists said security forces opened fire, killing at least 27 people, including a 10-year-old boy.
The turnout — and the now-familiar deadly response by the regime — was the latest sign the conflict could be moving toward a dangerous stalemate with neither side able to tip the scales.
President Bashar Assad’s forces have unleashed tanks and snipers and made thousands of arrests to quash the revolt, but protesters continue to face down security forces.
Protesters insisted their movement was growing and they would not be bowed.
“We, as young activists, are very optimistic,” said a protest organizer in the capital, which saw at least four demonstrations Friday — a significant increase from recent rallies in Damascus, at the heart of the Assad regime’s power. Like most protesters contacted by The Associated Press, he asked that his name not be used for fear of government reprisals.
Assad has shrugged off U.S. calls to step aside as well as a new round of sanctions targeting him and top aides, suggesting mounting international pressure will not force an end to a crackdown that human-rights groups say has resulted in at least 900 deaths since mid-March.
The crushing security response Friday came despite calls a day earlier from U.S. President Barack Obama that Assad should lead his country to democracy or “get out of the way.” Syria’s official news agency said Obama’s admonition amounted to “incitement.”
Assad’s sweeping campaign of intimidation, mass arrests and heavy security kept crowds last week below earlier levels seen during the uprising. But larger and more widespread marches Friday suggest that opposition forces could be trying to regroup.
Witnesses reported protests in the central cities of Homs and Hama, the capital of Damascus and its suburbs, and the Mediterranean ports of Banias and Latakia. In the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, security forces using batons dispersed dozens of demonstrators, an activist said.
