Syria: bloody protests over the slaying of 30 children

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

Perilous Times

Syria: bloody protests over the slaying of 30 children

Dozens of people were killed on Friday as Syrian protesters demonstrated over of the killing of 30 children at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad's security forces.

By Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent
The Telegraph UK

7:56PM BST 03 Jun 2011

Alarmed by the impact of a widely circulated video showing the corpse of a 13-year-old boy allegedly tortured to death while in prison, the government instituted an internet shutdown.

The death of Hamza el-Khatib spurred tens of thousands of demonstrators to join marches across the country.

Activists said up to 150,000 people gathered in the northern city of Maarat an-Numan, which, if confirmed, would be by far the largest protest since protests began in March.

The violence, which killed at least 34 people, was centred on the historically volatile city of Hama, scene of the worst civilian massacre in modern Syrian history. In 1982, government forces put down an Islamist uprising, killing 20,000 people.

Yesterday’s violence came after protesters attempted to burn down the local headquarters of the ruling Ba’ath party. Some in the crowd were said to be carrying hunting rifles. An estimated 50,000 people rallied against Mr Assad.

Security forces unleashed “intense gunfire” against the crowd as they marched and the death toll was likely to rise, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian observatory for human rights.

Protesters also came under live fire in a district of Damascus and two eastern towns as a call to observe a “Day of Child Martyrs” after Friday prayers was met with an unprecedented response.

“Yet again the Syrian government has shown an abhorrent disregard for human life as ordinary Syrians took to the streets today in memory of the innocent children who have died during the unrest,” said Alistair Burt, Foreign Office minister for the Middle East.

The previously flagging protest movement has been given renewed impetus by horror over Hamza el-Khatib’s death. Activists say the images of his mutilated body show that he was repeatedly subjected to cigarettes burns, electric shocks and beatings. He also had his neck broken, his penis cut off and was shot through both arms and his head.

Many other children have become victims of regime repression.

In the past week, three girls — one of them four years old — have been shot dead by the security forces. Hajar Tayseer el-Khatib, 12, who was killed as her school bus came under fire, has been named “the flower of Syria’s martyrs” by the protest movement.

In an attempt to unify support against Mr Assad’s regime, protesters uploaded clips on YouTube.

“They killed my father last night,” said one girl aged around 8-years-old from Tel Kalakh, near the border with Lebanon. “We could not even catch a goodbye sight of him. Three of my uncles have been in jail for two years. Two other uncles and my grandmother are dead, and my father was killed yesterday. May God take their lives. I will get my revenge one day.”