Beirut (AP) Eyewitnesses say Syrian security forces have fired tear gas at thousands of protesters who were marching toward the Syrian capital.
The eyewitnesses says tens of thousands of protesters were marching peacefully from the suburb of Douma when security forces tried to stop them by beating them and firing tear gas.
Crowds gathered in several Syrian cities yesterday, chanting "Freedom!" and demanding far greater reforms than the limited concessions offered by President Bashar Al Assad over the past four weeks.
The largest protests were on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, and in the southern city of Daraa, which has become the epicentre of the protest movement. Witnesses said there were up to 50,000 people outside the capital and 10,000 in Daraa.
There was no immediate sign of army and security services in Daraa — a stark change from previous weeks, when Syrian forces fired tear gas and live bullets at the protesters.
Emergency laws
Protesters were shouting for an end to the decades-old emergency laws, which allow the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge. Lifting the state of emergency has been a key demand of the protesters.
In central Damascus, hundreds of regime supporters marched near the historic Umayyad mosque, carrying pictures of Al Assad and chanting "Our souls, our blood we sacrifice for you Bashar."
It was impossible to independently verify the witness accounts because Syria has placed tight restrictions on media coverage, preventing access to trouble spots and expelling journalists.
The month-long protest movement in Syria has steadily gathered momentum as tens of thousands of people demand sweeping reforms in Al Assad's authoritarian regime. More than 200 people have been killed during the government crackdown on protesters, according to Syria's main pro-democracy group. April 8 was the deadliest day since protests began with 37 people killed, most of them in Daraa.
Videos posted online showed hundreds of protesters marching in the predominantly Kurdish city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria, shouting "Azadi!" the Kurdish word for freedom. In Kisweh, a Damascus suburb, footage showed protesters shouting "the people want to topple the regime!" — a slogan used during the demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia.
The footage could not be independently confirmed.
