OnIslam.net

DAMASCUS – Facing escalated attacks from the regime’s security forces, Syrian protesters demanded international protection to stop civilian killings ahead of a visit by the Arab League secretary general to Damascus.

"Where is the international community?" shouted protesters in the Damascus suburb of Qudsaya, Reuters reported.

At least six pro-democracy protesters were shot dead on Friday as protesters took to the streets in their thousands after Friday prayers as they have weekly for six months.

In Hajar al-Aswad, on the southern edge of Damascus, protesters carried a large green, white and red-striped old Syrian flag, dating back half a century to the era before Assad's Baath Party seized control of Syria.

"After all these killings and assaults, where is international protection?" read a banner carried by protesters.

"The people want the execution of the president," other protesters chanted.
Assad has been facing the worst crisis in his 11-year rule, with protestors demanding his ouster.

Responding to the unrest with a mixture of reforms and force, Assad granted citizenship to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Kurds, ended a state of emergency and promised to let groups other than his Baath party run in elections.

However, his troops have also launched a deadly crackdown on protestors, killing more than 2,200 people.

The killings on Friday occurred in the city of Homs, 165-km (100 miles) north of Damascus, in the tribal province of Deir al-Zor and in the northwestern province of Idlib near Turkey.

The death toll was lower than many previous Fridays.

"It seems that the regime eased its assaults a bit today after hearing the words of Turkey and to look better ahead of the Arab League visit," said one activist in the city of Hama, which saw some of the heaviest military assaults.

"But this is for public consumption. We have been seeing a spike in the assassinations of street leaders, arrests, torture and deaths in prison," said the activist, who did not want to be named for fear of being apprehended.

Delayed Visit

Arab League chief Nabil El-Araby flew to Syria on Saturday to convey concerns over the bloody crackdown on Syrian peaceful protesters.

Coming three days later than originally planned, El-Araby is set bring a 13-point document outlining Arab proposals to end the crisis and begin a reform process in the violence-wracked League member state.

The attempt by the 22-member pan-Arab body to resolve the festering Syria crisis takes place as Turkey indicated that its patience was running thin given the lack of progress in its efforts to convince Assad to halt military assaults.

"Mr Assad, how can you say you are killing terrorists when you were actually shelling Latakia from the sea and hitting civilian targets?" Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on al-Jazeera Television in an interview broadcast on Thursday.

Piling fresh pressures on Assad, Syria’s powerful neighbor warned the Syrian President against the dead-end road he has entered willingly.

"We are moving patiently now,” Erdogan said.

“But after consultations, we will give our final word, which will show an exit from the tunnel, because we are not the ones who put Assad on this dead-end road.

“It was he and those around him who entered this dead-end road,” the Turkish PM added.