The Arab League presence in Syria fails to stop violence, as activists report shootings and nail bomb attacks by soldiers during mass protests after Friday prayers.
With the Arab League monitors in town, demonstrators were determined to show the strength of their movement. News agency Reuters has reported that hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in several cities, including in Douma, Damascus, where activists say troops used tear gas and nail bombs on a chanting crowd.
Five people are reported to have been shot dead in Hama and five in Deraa in the south.
“Five were martyred today and at least 20 wounded when the Syrian security forces opened fire,” the British based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported, referring to Hama.
This Friday is different from any other Friday. It’s a transformative step. People are eager to reach the monitors and tell them about their suffering. Abu Hisham, activist in Hama
The Observatory is also reporting that 250,000 people gathered after Friday’s Muslim prayer, across 74 different locations in the northern province of Idlib, and that some of those protestors were fired on by security forces, leaving 25 injured.
“This Friday is different from any other Friday. It’s a transformative step. People are eager to reach the monitors and tell them about their suffering,” said activist Abu Hisham in Hama.
In the Damascus suburb of Barzeh, protestors in a large crowd held up signs that read: “The monitors are witnesses who don’t see anything” and shouted: “Bashar, we don’t want you, Syrians raise your hands.”
Protest leaders had called for mass demonstrations to follow Friday prayers, after reports that up to 40 people were killed on Thursday by soldiers.
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There has been violence across the country since Arab league monitors began their tour in Hama on Tuesday. On Wednesday they went to a flashpoint area in the city of Homs but some of their planned tour was blocked when gunfire eurupted, activists said.
The facebook page of the Local Coordination Committee group in Syria, which helps arrange protests in the country, is reporting a death toll of 17 from protests across several cities, including Hama, Idlib, Damascus and Talkalahk.
Footage from Hama, a flashpoint throughout the last year, shows thousands linking arms to protest against the regime. In August, tanks attacked the city for ten days, provoking international outrage.
Verifying details of these latest incidents is impossible because most foreign media are banned from Syria.
On Friday morning the rebel Free Syrian Army announced that it is stopping its offensive against government targets. The attacks were planned to coincide with the month long visit from Arab league monitors.
The leader of the FSA, Colonel Riad al-Assad, is a breakaway member of the Syrian air force. He said that his forces had so far been unable to talk to the monitors and he was still trying to contact them urgently.
He told Reuters: “I issued an order to stop all operations from the day the committee entered Syria last Friday. All operations against the regime are to be stopped except in a situation of self defence.
“We have tried to communicate with them…so far there hasn’t been any success. No one has contacted us either.”
The Free Syrian Army says it is made up of 15000 army defectors who abandoned the regime during the recent uprising against the government.
The group has claimed responsibility for attacks on state institutions and buildings, killing several soldiers and members of the security forces.
President Assad has signed up to an Arab League plan for a verifiable withdrawal of his heavy weaponry and army from Syrian cities but the mission, currently in the country has met with strong scepticism.
Its initial assessment by the mission’s Sudanese chief was to describe the situation as “reassuring”.
Syria’s ally Russia, welcomed the judgement. The Foreign Ministry said on it’s website: “Judging by the public statements made by the chief of the mission al-Dabi, who in the first of his visits went to the city of Homs…the situation seems to be reassuring.”
There has been criticism of Sudanese general Mustafa al-Dabi, who has been linked to war crimes in Darfur in the 1990s.
In Britain, Alistair Burt, Minister for the Middle East and North Africa said: “Unfortunately, reports show that the violence has continued in Syria over the past few days. The Syrian government must allow the Arab League mission independent and unrestricted access.”