Dubai: More than 3,000 women and children protested on Wednesday in Syria's coastal city of Baniyas demanding the release of their husbands and children who were arrested by the security forces following Friday's unrest in the city.
The women stopped under the bridge of Al Marqab on the highway and said they would not return home until their demands were met.
In focus: Unrest in the Middle East
Speaking to Gulf News, Hasnaa M, participant in the protest, said women chanted the two kilometres from the city centre to the Al Marqab Bridge as they called for peace. They also chanted the slogan adopted by the protesters in all cities: Allah (God), Soria (Syria), Horriya wa Bas (and Liberty).
Arrests
Hasnaa said another group from Al Bayda Village (10 kilometres to the south of Baniyas) gathered under the Bustan Bridge to demand the release of more than 200 men and children arrested by the security forces in the past two days.
There was no independent source to verify Hasnaa's claims. A human rights lawyer earlier said security forces had arrested 200 residents in Al Bayda, killing two people.
"They brought in a tele-vision crew and forced the men they arrested to shout ‘We sacrifice our blood and our soul for you, [Al] Bashar' while filming them," the lawyer, who was in contact with residents of the town, said.
"Syria is the Arab police state par excellence. But the regime still watches international reaction, and as soon as it senses that it has weakened, it turns more bloody," said the lawyer, who did not want to be further identified.
The situation grew tense in the city of Baniyas and surrounding villages following an ambush of the military stationed in the area to quell protesters. Nine soldiers including two high-ranking officers were killed in the ambush on Sunday but no one claimed responsibility for the incident.
Hasnaa said the women also demanded that the military lift its blockade of the city to allow urgent food and other domestic necessities to enter.
Flashpoint
"We have no food, we have no bread," Hasnaa told Gulf News.
The students at the University of Aleppo, which has over than 60,000 students, took to the streets chanting support for the two flashpoint cities Daraa and Baniyas.
"The city, which remained calm since the protests erupted on March 10 in Daraa and spread to more than 13 cities, has recorded its first participation in the dissent against the government.
"The fact that the protests started from the university is very dangerous and would have serious repercussion on the stability of the country," one Aleppo resident wrote on the Syrian Revolution 2011 page on Facebook.
Aleppo, the second most important city after the capital Damascus, is home to more than five million people.
The majority of its residents believe that the president was a true reformist but the Old Guard in the regime was behind the delay in implementing his reform programme.
A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity said no city was immune to the "uprising syndrome", and that the unrest could spread there.
