...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
and in the central city of Homs, the Local Coordination Committees said, as thousands of Syrians erupted into the streets to rally against
President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
on the first Friday of Ramadan in support of the protest hub of Hama.
"Seven people were killed in Irbin, another in Maadamiya (both towns near the capital) and two in Homs," Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone earlier on Friday, adding many others were maimed by gunfire.
Fellow activist Abdul Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights, said earlier five people were rubbed out in Irbin but cautioned the toll was likely to rise due to sustained gunfire.
Meanwhile,
...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control...
state news agency SANA said two members of the security forces were killed and eight maimed in an ambush on a road in the Idlib region of northwest Syria, near the Turkish border.
Gunmen posted on an apartment block rooftop in Douma, near Damascus, shot and maimed two other members of the security forces, it said, while assailants also opened fire in Homs.
Security forces used cluster ammunition in Douma, according to the head of the Britannia-based Observatory.
Communications were completely cut off as the army stepped up an operation to crush dissent in Hama, north of Damascus, where security forces killed at least 30 civilians and maimed dozens more earlier in the week.
"Thousands of demonstrators marched in Deir Ezzor, Daraa and Qamishli in support of the city of Hama despite the extreme heat," Rihawi said, adding that they numbered 30,000 in Deir Ezzor alone.
Abdul Rahman said that "more than 12,000 people" also marched in Bench, in Idlib province, "to demand the fall of the regime and express their support for Hama and Deir Ezzor."
"Hundreds of people came out of the Al-Mans Uri mosque in Jableh, chanting 'God is with us,'" he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The call for Friday's protests came from activists on Facebook group The Syrian Revolution 2011, a driving force behind the demonstrations calling for greater freedoms since mid-March.
The Assad regime has sought to crush the democracy movement with brutal force, killing more than 1,600 civilians and arresting thousands of dissenters, rights activists say.
Its latest crackdown has centered on Hama, where at least 30 people were killed on Wednesday by tanks shelling the city center.
The city was isolated on Friday, and the military continued an operation to combat what Assad's regime calls "armed terrorist gangs" responsible for the deadly unrest.
State media reported that army units were removing "roadblocks set up by terrorist groups that have blocked roads and damaged public and private property, including cop shoppes, using various weapons."
The crackdown on Hama has prompted harsh words from Washington and Moscow, with Russia hinting at a possible change of heart after stonewalling firm U.N. action against Syria, its ally since Soviet times.
The White House said the deadly crackdown has put Syria and the Middle East on a "very dangerous path," as Washington extended a raft of recent sanctions to include a businessman close to Assad and his family.
President Barack
B.O.Obama's administration appeared to be moving toward a first direct call for Assad to go, a step it has so far resisted, following the escalation of violence in Hama.
Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Timothy Pickering...
said the United States would urge the Europeans, Arabs and others to do more to press Syria to stop its deadly crackdown.
Clinton said Assad's regime was responsible for the deaths of more than 2,000 people, repeating that Washington believes the embattled president has "lost his legitimacy to govern."
The U.S. Treasury Department froze the U.S. assets of Mohammed Hamsho and his company, Hamsho International Group, and prohibited U.S. entities from engaging in any business dealings with them.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
activists and analysts have dismissed as a ploy a new law allowing the creation of political parties alongside the Baath party, as decreed by Assad on Thursday.
The decree came after the U.N. Security Council condemned the crackdown and said those responsible should be held accountable, in a non-binding statement rather than a resolution.
Western powers had hoped for stronger action but were rebuffed by veto-wielding members Russia and China, who feared doing so would pave the way for another military intervention like the one in Libya.
But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke forcefully about the situation on Thursday and called on Assad to "carry out urgent reforms" warning otherwise "a sad fate awaits him and in the end we will have to take some decisions."
And Kuwait on Friday urged a halt to the crackdown, expressing its "extreme pain" and calling for dialogue and a political solution to allow for "true reforms that meet the demands of the Syrian people".
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said developments in Syria "are unacceptable."
"Operations with heavy arms and tanks in densely populated residential areas like Hama are not legitimate at all," he was quoted by Anatolia news agency as saying.