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At least 25 dead, Syria demonstrators reach
capital; Total internet blackout
Friday June 03, 2011 08:42:16 PM,
Agencies
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Damascus: Syrian
security forces shot dead at least 25 people while dispersing tens
of thousands of demonstrators in the central city of Hama today,
activists said, as anti-regime protests spread to Damascus.
Activists in the city told AFP by telephone in Nicosia that dozens
of other people were wounded.
Security forces unleashed "intense gunfire" against a crowd of
more than 50,000 people in Hama, according to Rami Abdel Rahman
who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It was the largest demonstration in Hama since the mid-March
outbreak of an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, he
said.
The official SANA news agency, however, reported "hundreds of
people gathered after Friday prayers in Hama chanting diverse
slogans" but that security forces and police had stayed away.
'Internet
Blackout'
Internet services across Syria were
down since Friday morning and the west Asian nation remained
completely offline, the country's state telephone and internet
service said.
"We have a problem. We are now striving to tackle it," a
spokeswoman for the internet service said without giving further
details.
Pro-democracy protests have been breaking out in Syria each
Friday, the country's official holiday, over the last two and a
half months. Activists organise the rallies through Facebook and
Twitter.
Syrian authorities have several times severed internet connections
in most rebellious territories to hamper the protests, but this is
the first time that internet services across the country have been
down.
Over 1,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the
unrest in the country, Syrian rights activists claim.
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