Troops Open Fire on Syrian Protesters

A Wall Street Journal Roundup

Associated Press

Thousands of Syrians took to the streets Friday demanding reforms and mourning dozens of protesters who were killed during a violent crackdown.

Protests calling for freedom and reform erupted across Syrian cities a day after the government announced a list of concessions prompting violent clashes with security forces, witnesses and Arab media reported.

An activist in Damascus in touch with eyewitnesses in the village of Sanamein, near Daraa, said troops there opened fire on demonstrators trying to march to Daraa. He said there had been witness reports of fatalities, some claiming as many as 20 slain, but those could not be independently confirmed, the Associated Press reported.

The new round of protests comes a day after President Bashar Assad's government announced a list of concessions aimed at appeasing the unrest. The government announced on Thursday that it would increase wages for public workers, reconsider the emergency law in place for nearly five decades and allow more freedom for news media.

Amateur video shows thousands marching in funerals for those killed by Syrian security forces.Video Courtesy of Reuters.

Syrian Forces Fire on Protesters

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Amateur video footage purportedly shows Syrian forces opening fire on youths protesting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Video courtesy of Reuters and photo courtesy of AP.

However, the promises of gradual reform appear to have done little to deter the opposition.

As protests spread across other cities, there is a rising sense in the country that the government's offers of reform had not done enough to appease the population.

"Today ushers in a new era," said one Syrian man speaking on condition of anonymity. "I think the size of the protests will grow and spread further." He said that many Syrians were beginning to view President Assad in a different light.

The president has found favor with many young Syrians who see his foreign policy as well as his aims as trending towards his own: opening up the country and moving forward with reforms.

But the killings in Daraa, the ramping up of arrests and the slew of government propaganda blaming unrest on outsiders, reiterated by spokesperson Buthaina Shaaban on Thursday night, have altered opinions, he said. A Daraa resident told the AP that more than 50,000 people were shouting slogans decrying presidential adviser Mrs. Shaaban Friday.

A human rights activist, quoting witnesses, told the AP thousands of people gathered in the town of Douma outside the capital, Damascus, pledging support for the people of Daraa.

Across Syria security forces battled the crowds with batons and sticks attempting to disperse antigovernment gatherings that formed around mosques after the Friday prayer sermons, according to media reports. They also arrested dozens of protestors, according to reports.

In Damascus, activists said it was much harder to act. Intelligence agents have been cracking down in recent days, arresting and detaining scores of people and demanding they hand over passwords to email and Facebook accounts.

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Muzaffar Salman/Associated Press

In Damascus, activists said a crackdown by intelligence agents made rallies difficult. But these Assad opponents rallied near the city's central Marjeh Square after Friday prayers.

To counter any coverage of anti-government demonstrations, throughout the day huge rallies of pro-Assad supporters drove around the capital city waving flags and photographs of the president. A large rally is planned in the city this evening.

Syria's unrest was sparked by the arrest of a group of teenagers in the southern city of Daraa who painted anti government graffiti on walls. Their arrest prompted massive outrage, followed by heavy crackdowns by the government that human rights organizations estimate has killed at least 45 people.

Thousands of people marched in Daraa on Friday asking for justice for the victims and clashing with the police, Arab media reported. The government asked journalists to leave Daraa on Friday contradicting its earlier promise of greater press freedom.

The Facebook page for organizing Friday's rally "Syria Revolution 2011," posted that more than 200,000 protestors in Deraa and Houran had one demand: "Free Syria" and "No to the presence of corrupt murderers in the government."

Unlike their counterparts in the Arab world, like Egypt and Libya, the demonstrators in Syria have so far stayed away from calling for regime change and kept their demands to calls for reform.

Arab countries in the region followed Syria's unprecedented uprising with apprehension. Mr. Assad, who has defined his foreign policies by being anti-Israel and close to Iran and Hezbollah, was once seen as invincible. That image is quickly shattering as Syrians shed their fear and take to the streets.

In Qatar, an influential Sunni cleric, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qardawi, mentioned the unrest in Syria in his sermon, which was broadcast on Al Jazeera and quickly posted on Youtube.

"Today the train of revolution has arrived at a station that it was destined to reach, the Syrian station. It isn't possible for Syria to detach itself from the history of the Arab nation," he said.

—Nada Raad contributed to this article.