Damascus: More than 60 people were killed in Syria as thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets after Friday prayers, rights activists say. At least 53 people are believed to have died when security forces fired on a crowd of about 50,000 people in the central city of Hama. Some accounts put the death toll at more than 100.
The opposition had dedicated the day to children killed during the uprising.
The army meanwhile continued its assault on the central town of Rastan.
Scores have been killed in the past few days as troops and tanks attempted to quell protests there. At least two civilians died on Friday, the Local Co-ordination Committees said.
“Since early this morning… there has been extensive bombardment with heavy and medium gunfire, using tanks, armoured vehicles and automatic machine gunfire,” a Rastan resident media.
“There was also random shelling, and there are snipers widespread on all the rooftops of the government buildings.”
State television said about 80 security personnel had been wounded. Reports from Syria are hard to verify independently, as foreign journalists are not being allowed into the country.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said President Bashar al-Assad’s legitimacy had “nearly run out”.
She said the US had done all it could to exert pressure on Syria, but she lamented the lack of a strong, united international response.
On Wednesday, Assad launched a “national dialogue” and freed hundreds of political prisoners as part of a general amnesty.
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