AMMAN, (Reuters) – Irregular forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired at a group of people guarding a mosque in Banias yesterday, two witnesses said, after pro-democracy unrest flared in the conservative coastal city.
Once-unthinkable mass protests challenging Assad’s 11-year authoritarian rule have spread across Syria despite his attempts to defuse resentment by making gestures towards reforms and reaching out to minority Kurds and conservative Sunni Muslims.
Intensifying a crackdown on popular dissent now in its fourth week, security forces fanned out in tanks overnight near the Banias oil refinery — one of two in Syria — near the Alawite district of Qusour, where its main hospital is located.
Gunfire could be heard across the city on Sunday. Reuters could not confirm if there were any casualties.
An official source said an armed group hiding between trees and buildings had ambushed a military unit patrol on the Latakia-Tartous highway in Banias, killing one soldier and wounding others, according to state news agency, SANA.
At least 90 people have been killed in mass demonstrations, which first erupted in March to demand the release of school children who scrawled pro-democracy graffiti on school walls in the southern city of Deraa, and later progressed to calling for greater freedoms and an end to Assad’s rule.
