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Syrian opposition meets to boost protests

17 September 2011 19:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. About 200 Syrian opposition members have met outside the capital, Damascus, in a significant gathering of dissidents on Syrian soil, APA reports quoting Associated Press.

The Syrian opposition consists of a variety of groups with often differing ideologies, including Islamists and secularists, and there have been many meetings of dissidents who say they represent the opposition. But Saturdayâ€™s meeting was unusual in part because it was held inside Syria, rather than neighboring countries.

A news conference was planned for Sunday.

The Syrian uprising began in mid-March, amid a wave of protests in the Arab world that toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Syrian President Bashar Assad has reacted with deadly force that the U.N. estimates has left some 2,600 people dead.