As toll mounts, Syrians opt for nighttime protests

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 27, 2011

BEIRUT: Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government demonstrations Friday, killing at least eight people as thousands took to the streets, human rights activists and witnesses said.

The casualties included three people in Qatana, a suburb of the capital, and four in the southern village of Dael, according to local coordination committees in Syria, which helped organize the protests. One person was also reported killed near the border with Lebanon.

The 10-week protests have evolved from a disparate movement demanding reforms to a resilient uprising that is now seeking President Bashar Assad's ouster. On Friday, protests erupted in the capital, Damascus, and the coastal city of Banias, the central city of Homs and elsewhere.

Human rights groups say more than 1,000 people have been killed since the revolt began in mid-March.

Many activists have been opting for nighttime demonstrations and candlelight vigils in recent days, aiming for a time when the security presence has thinned out. "We refuse to let them sleep," a 28-year-old Dael resident said of the security forces. "We drive them crazy, as soon as they come to the neighborhood we go quiet and they get lost. And then we start again when they leave," he told The Associated Press.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article434912.ece.