Security forces killed at least two people as they moved into central and northwest Syria on September 1, activists said, urging fresh anti-regime protests under the banner of “death rather than humiliation.” Hours before, Hama’s attorney general declared on YouTube he had resigned in protest against bloody repression of street demonstrations.Residents of Hama said security police and state militiamen, known as shabbiha, raided houses overnight in the Al-Sabouniya and Al-Marabetdistricts, after troops backed by tanks arrested dozens in two other neighbourhoods of the city the night before.
The attorney general of Hama said he had resigned because security forces killed 72 jailed protesters and activists at Hama’s central jail on the eve of the military assault on the city on July 31. He said at least another 420 people were killed in the operation and were buried in mass graves in public parks.
Syrian authorities have expelled foreign media making it difficult to verify events in the country. The actual death toll as a result of brutal crackdown is much higher than what is reported in the media if horrifying stories told by relatives of Syrian expatriates in Gulf countries are to be believed.