Syria : Protesters Demand Death For Assad

ALEPPO (Syria): Protesters in Aleppo took to the streets Friday to demand death for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad even as violence raged there and 19 people were killed nationwide, an AFP journalist and a watchdog said.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Al-Shaar neighbourhood of the country’s economic capital, chanting:

“The people want the execution of Bashar!” and “The people want freedom and peace.”

“We go down the street with a single objective: the liberation of the country,” said 20-year-old protester Abu Ahmed.

“Today you can take to the streets. Before there were shabiha” pro-regime militiamen, he said. “For 20 years we supported the military, but in fact this army is against us.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported demonstrations in the Saif al-Dawla, Furqan and New Aleppo neighbourhoods in western Aleppo, as well as in Sukari, Bustan al-Qasr and Fardoss in the south.

It also reported protests in the Kurdish region of Hasakeh, Daraa province of southern Syria and Idlib province to the northwest, where one demonstrator was shot dead by regime forces. Also in Idlib, five rebels were killed in an army ambush, the Observatory said.