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Opponents, supporters of gov’t rally in Syrian cities

09 December 2011 22:35 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Mass rallies were held Friday in a number of Syrian cities in support for embattled President Bashar al-Assad, while anti-regime demonstrations erupted in protest-hub cities calling for his ouster and implore their countrymen to stage a general "strike of dignity" on Sunday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Thousands of people took to the streets in several cities, including the capital Damascus, to renew their resentment toward the international community’s attempt to "aggravate the situation in Syria," Syrian media reported on Friday.

The state TV aired pro-Assad demonstrations at Wadi al-Dahab neighborhood in the flashpoint city of Homs, while other TV channels aired anti-regime protests staged in another district in the city, which gave a glimpse of the internal conflict in Homs.

The state-run SANA news agency said that explosive experts on Friday dismantled three explosive devices and remotely blasted another three, which were planted in different alleys in Douma district just outside Damascus.

SANA said a girl was killed and five law-enforcement members were injured when armed men fired at them in southern Daraa province, the birth place of the anti-Assad movement in Syria.

Syria has blamed the West and some Arab countries for paying armed thugs to fuel sectarian rivalries in the country, which has a complex mosaic of sects and ethnicities.

On the opposition side, some media reported that Assad’s opponents had launched fresh rallies Friday with calls for staging general strikes, despite several previous appeals were met with deaf ears by Syrians, particularly in Damascus and Aleppo, the two economic powerhouses remaining relatively calm except in the countryside.

The al-Jazeera TV quoted witness as saying that 13 people were killed Friday, most of them in Homs. But Syrian media dismissed the report as untrue and as part of Arab TVs’ inflammatory campaigns.

Homs, Syria’s third largest city and home to about 800,000 people, has witnessed severe clashes between troops loyal to Assad and militia groups allegedly consisting of army defectors.

The region is considered to be one of Syria’s most volatile areas, as its daily violence stirred up fears that the unrest has slid into a civil war.

Friday’s protests came only one day after "a terrorist group" blew up an oil pipeline in Homs, the third blast targeting oil infrastructure since the unrest erupted in mid-March, further crippling Syria’s energy sector that already suffers from tough sanctions.

Syria has been recently slammed with a new round of sanctions that has dealt a heavy blow to its already ailing economy, including those slapped by the European Union, the United States, Turkey and the Arab League last week.

The Syrian government’s repeated accusations that there are armed groups among the protesters were not echoed by the West, which insists the regime and its troops are behind the deadly violence.

In a recent development, the Arab League (AL) is set to meet in the Qatari capital of Doha to discuss Syria’s amendments to a protocol on an observer mission to oversee Damascus’ compliance with the AL-brokered peace deal.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told Xinhua that the ministry has received a message from the AL and the government is studying it, without disclosing further details.