Eight more protesters killed in Syria

Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters in several parts of the country yesterday, killing at least eight people and wounding scores as part of the now weekly protests against the ruling regime.

Masked gunmen burst into an apartment in the predominantly Kurdish north-east and shot dead a prominent opposition figure whilst another leading opposition figure was beaten up by pro-government gunmen and rushed to a hospital in Damascus, activists said.

Mashaal Tammo, a prominent activist and a spokesman for the Kurdish Future Party, was killed by unknown gunmen in the city of Qamishli in the latest in a string of targeted killings in Syria, as the country slides further into disorder, seven months into the uprising against president Bashar al-Assad.

In what has become a weekly ritual of protests and violence, security forces opened fire at rallies attended by tens of thousands of marchers in the streets of several Syrian cities, towns and villages.

At least eight people were killed and scores were wounded, according to reports in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least four people were killed and 25 were wounded in the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest city.

It also reported intense gunfire in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq, and the Damascus suburb of Douma.

In Douma, the Observatory said at least three people were killed and several were wounded, while five were wounded in the northern town of Maaret al-Numan.

Syria-based rights activist Mustafa Osso said one person was also killed in the town of Zabadani near the border with Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Riad Seif, a former lawmaker who became a leading opposition figure and outspoken critic of Mr Assad’s regime, was beaten up outside a mosque in the central Damascus suburb of Midan, according to activists.

The Local Co-ordination Committees also reported heavy shooting in the village of Jassem in the southern province of Deraa, where the uprising against Mr Assad’s regime began seven months ago.

Since mid-March, the Syrian government crackdown has left at least 2,900 people dead, including members of security forces, according to the UN’s human rights office. The figure rose by at least 200 since the beginning of September.

The Syrian opposition had called for protests after Muslim prayers yesterday in support of the broad-based National Council, which was founded in Istanbul earlier this week.

The council brings together figures from inside and outside Syria in an attempt to unify the deeply fragmented dissident movement.

Yesterday monrning, troops cordoned off mosques to prevent protests after midday prayers in the central town of Rastan, which the military recaptured last week from forces made up of army defectors.

Government troops battled defectors in Rastan for five days before retaking the town. The fighting was the most dramatic illustration on the ground so far of the increasing militarisation of the uprising. The Syrian government denies any defections.

The fighting came as Syria’s deputy foreign minister said that a national investigation was under way into killings, including the deaths of 1,100 security forces, but denied allegations that loyalist forces had shot soldiers refusing to fire on protesters.

Faisal Mekdad said that only when Syria’s own investigation was completed could it consider letting in an international commission of inquiry, set up by the UN Human Rights Council.

“I would like to assure the international community that those who committed violations of human rights will be held to account,” Mr Mekdad said.