Tear gas fired at Daraa protesters

Damascus: Syrian security forces fired tear gas on thousands of protesters on Monday in a restive southern city as President Bashar Al Assad faced down the most serious unrest of his 11 years in power with a bloody, week-long crackdown.

Al Assad was expected to address the nation early today to try to ease the crisis by lifting a nearly 50-year-old state of emergency and moving to annul other harsh restrictions on civil liberties and political freedoms.

Syria has been rocked by more than a week of demonstrations that began in the drought-parched agricultural city of Daraa and exploded nationwide on Friday, with security forces opening fire on demonstrators in at least six locations. The death toll was at least 61 since March 18, according to Human Rights Watch.

An eyewitness in Daraa said up to 4,000 people were protesting there yesterday, calling for more political freedoms. He said security forces fired tear gas at the crowd and live ammunition in the air to disperse them.

Port city

The witness spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Syrian TV denied troops had fired on the demonstrators.

In the country's main port city of Latakia, armed groups appeared to be facing off and threatening an escalation in violence. Residents were taking up weapons and manning their own checkpoints to guard against what they say are unknown gunmen roaming the streets carrying sticks and hunting rifles, witnesses said yesterday.

It was not clear whether the gunmen were working for the government.

The scenes in Latakia, a Mediterranean port once known as a summer tourist draw, were a remarkable display of anarchy in what had been one of the Middle East's most tightly controlled countries.

Armed people

A Latakia resident told AP that soldiers were deployed in the city and around key buildings, including the ruling Baath party headquarters and the Central Bank.

But he said that in nearby villages and entrances to the city, armed groups who appeared to be residents were blocking roads with garbage containers and large rocks and asking people for their ID.

"They are terrorising people," he said. "They are regular people who are taking up the role of security forces, that's extremely dangerous," he said.

The government has accused armed, foreign elements of working to sow sectarian strife and destabilise the country. New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the government "to hold to account those responsible for any unlawful shooting on demonstrators".

Rights violations

"Syria's authorities promise reform on TV but meet demonstrators with bullets in the streets," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

"The government should understand that these demonstrations won't end until it stops shooting at protesters and begins to change its repressive laws and practices."

Meanwhile, Sunni and Alawite religious leaders and civic figures in the Syrian port city of Latakia have met to try to contain sectarian violence, leading opposition figure Aref Dalila said yesterday.

"The situation appears calm today after religious and civil society figures intervened. I was told buses are running and businesses have re-opened in the main University district of Latakia," Dalila told Reuters by telephone from Damascus.

"It is easy to play on the sectarian card in these circumstances. I hope the regime will choose an exit from this crisis that will spare Syria more bloodshed," said Dalila, a former dean of economics at Damascus University and a former political prisoner who had challenged what he termed monopolies granted by Al Assad to his relatives.

In Lebanon, some 300 Syrian labourers demonstrated in front of their country's embassy in Beirut yesterday to express their support for Al Assad's embattled regime.

"We are with Al Assad and against any change," said protester Mohammad Hilal, 18, one of tens of thousands of labourers employed in Lebanon, mainly in the construction sector.