| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| More carnage in Syria |
| 2011-06-18 |
| BEIRUT: Syrian security forces killed at least 16 people Friday, including a teenage boy, as thousands of people poured into the streets across the country calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime, activists said. The unrest also appeared to be spilling over into neighboring Lebanon. A senior member of a Lebanese political party allied with Syria and an off-duty soldier were killed Friday after gunmen opened fire and lobbed a grenade near hundreds of people holding an anti-Assad protest in northern Lebanon, a security official said in Beirut. The protests in Syria came hours after Syrian troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships seized control early Friday of another northwestern town in the latest military operation to quell the dissent. Since the protests erupted in mid-March, Assad has unleashed the military to crush street demonstrations. Human rights activists say more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained. The Syrian crackdown has brought international condemnation and sanctions on the regime. On Friday, a French official said the European Union was preparing new, expanded sanctions that would target the economy. Syria's state-run TV said Friday that a policeman was killed and more than 20 were wounded when "armed groups" opened fire at them. It added that six police officers were wounded in Deir El-Zour when gunmen attacked a police station in the area. The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents the protests, and Syria-based rights activist Mustafa Osso told The Associated Press that nine people were killed in the central city of Homs, two in the eastern town of Deir El-Zour and two in the Damascus suburb of Harasta, one in the major northern city of Aleppo. The 16-year-old, who was in the streets protesting, and another person died in the southern village of Dael, the committees said. Meanwhile, troops in large numbers poured into Maaret Al-Numan, 45 km from the Turkish border, said Osso. He said other forces were now massing around Khan Sheikhon, to the south, where gunmen attacked army forces earlier this month. |
| Posted by:Steve White |