Syria has detained the leader of a secular opposition grouping, intensifying a week-old crackdown on dissent that has already drawn US criticism, a human rights group said on Monday.
Security forces in the central city of Hama picked up Fidaa Horani, a 42-year-old gynaecologist who chairs the Damascus Declaration grouping, the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights said.
They transferred her to the capital following her arrest on Sunday, the watchdog added. Security forces already arrested the secretary of the opposition grouping, Akram Bunni, brother of a leading jailed dissident, last Tuesday.
In all some 30 signatories of the 2005 Damascus Declaration calling for "radical change" in Syria have been arrested over the past week. A total of 163 supporters of the declaration took part in a protest on December 1, angering the Baath party-dominated regime that has ruled under a state of emergency since 1963.
US President George W. Bush called on Friday for the immediate release of the detained dissidents. He applauded the formation of the opposition grouping, saying "the brave men and women who formed this council reflect the desires of the majority of Syrian people to live in freedom, democracy, and peace, both at home and alongside their neighbours in the region."