Syrian forces on March 28 opened fire to disperse hundreds of protesters in Daraa calling for an end to emergency laws, but demonstrators regrouped despite a heavy troop deployment, a witness said. At least 61 people have been killed in 10 days of anti-government protests in the southern city, posing the most serious challenge to President Bashar Al-Assad’s rule.
Security forces have reduced their presence in recent days in the poor, mostly Sunni city, but residents said they had returned in strength.
Abu Tamam, a Daraa resident whose house overlooks the mosque, said soldiers and central security forces occupied almost every meter outside the mosque. Another resident said snipers had repositioned on many key buildings. Such demonstrations would have been unthinkable a couple of months ago in Syria, where the Baath Party has been in power for nearly 50 years but now faces the wave of Arab revolutionary sentiment which has toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.