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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syrian helicopter gunships fire at protesters |
| 2011-06-11 |
| Syrian helicopter gunships fired machine guns to disperse a large pro-democracy protest in the town of Maarat al-Numaan on Friday, witnesses said, a dangerous escalation of force at the end of a day in which 32 civilians were reported killed by Assad's forces across the country. The gunship use was the first reported use of air power to quell protests in Syria's uprising. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that helicopters fired at the town after security forces on the ground killed five protesters, but said no killings were reported in the assault by the helicopters. A 40-year-old man who had decamped across the border into Turkey from Jisr al-Shughour with a bullet still in his thigh also described mutiny in Syrian ranks. "Some of the security forces defected and there were some in the army who refused the orders of their superiors," he said. "They were firing on each other." |
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| #1 NFZ? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-06-11 06:48 |