Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government demonstrations Friday, killing at least eight people as thousands took to the streets despite the near certainty they would face gunfire, tear gas and stun guns, human-rights activists and witnesses said.
The casualties included three people in Qatana, a suburb of the capital, and four in the southern village of Dael, according to the Local Coordination Committees in Syria, which help organize the protests. One person also was reported killed near the border with Lebanon.
The 10-week-old protests in Syria have evolved from a disparate movement demanding reforms to a resilient uprising that is now seeking President Bashar Assad’s ouster.
Human-rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed since the revolt began in mid-March.
YEMEN: Armed tribesmen seize two military camps.
The deadly fighting that rocked the Yemeni capital this week spread beyond Sanaa on Friday as armed tribesmen seeking to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh seized two military camps in battles that killed at least 18 and prompted airstrikes by government warplanes, a tribal leader said.
The fighting brought to at least 124 the number killed in the past five days of bloodshed, which has heightened fears that the Arab world’s poorest country could be thrown into civil war as Saleh clings to power in the face of peaceful protests demanding his ouster.
EGYPT: Protesters in Cairo for “second revolution.”
About 10,000 protesters returned to downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday for what they called a “second revolution,” urging Egypt’s military rulers to speed up the pace of democratic reforms in a country that is still charting its political future.
Protesters carried banners reading the “Egyptian revolution is not over” and chanted the slogan.
Christians and Muslims took turns praying in Tahrir Square, as they did during the protests that forced the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February. Sectarian clashes have turned deadly since the revolution. They also called for the speedy trial of Mubarak and high-ranking members of his regime.
Denver Post wire services
