Thousands of Syrian protesters on October 14 called on soldiers to abandon President Bashar Assad’s regime and join a dissident army numbering in the small thousands, as the top UN human rights official warned of a “full-blown civil war” in Syria, saying the death toll in the 7-month-old crackdown has passed 3,000. Security forces opened fire at protesters, killing at least 11, including a 14-year-old boy, in what has become a weekly ritual of protests met by gunfire, according to activists.
Friday’s protests, dubbed “Free Soldiers,” were in honour of army officers and soldiers who have sided with the protesters and are reportedly clashing with loyalists in northern and central Syrian cities in an increasing militarization of the uprising. “The army and people are one!” protesters shouted in the southern village of Dael, where most of the deaths occurred Friday. In other locations, some protesters held up banners that read: “Free soldiers do not kill free people asking for freedom.”
“I will not serve in an army that destroys my country and kills my people,” read a posting on the Syrian revolution’s main Facebook page that was meant to encourage defections.