Syria braced for Friday protests as unrest enters 7th month

Sep 16, 2011

Cairo/Beirut - Syria deployed tanks and army units across the country ahead of expected demonstrations on Friday, as the pro-democracy protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad entered their seventh month.

With the slogan 'we are continuing until we bring down the regime,' Syrian activists were planning to protest after Friday prayers, a traditional time for demonstrations.

'We will not stop no matter what kind of brutal means this regime uses against us,' Omar Idlibi, a spokesman for activist group The Local Coordination Committees, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Meanwhile, Syrian security forces continued large-scale searches for defectors, also in areas around the northern Lebanese-Syrian border.

A Lebanese man was wounded overnight by shots fired across the border in the Akkar region, hours after Syrian troops mistakenly shot at a Lebanese army unit in the area.

The Lebanese National News Agency said Ahmad Zeidan Ahmad was wounded by gunfire that struck homes in the Lebanese village of Kenayseh.

On Thursday, 15 soldiers from the Syrian Army briefly crossed into Lebanon while in pursuit of people 'fleeing' into the same area of Akkar.

'A Syrian Arab Army patrol entered Lebanese territory at Mounseh in the north, crossing 200 meters into Lebanese territory while pursuing people who were fleeing over the border,' said an army statement.

It added that a military vehicle was damaged by gunfire from inside Syria, and that the two armies were following up the incident.

Several hundred Syrian refugees and defectors have fled to areas in northern Lebanon and especially Akkar since anti-government protests started in mid-March.

An estimated 2,600 people have been killed in Syria during the government crackdown on protesters.

Source: Monsters and Critics.
Link: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1663317.php/Syria-braced-for-Friday-protests-as-unrest-enters-7th-month.