Syrian security forces killed at least 11 people on Friday as more than half a million people took to the streets across the country to demand the departure of Bashar al-Assad, activists said. The protests came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said time was running out for the Syrian president, as he pursues a violent crackdown on pro-democracy activists that has killed more than 1,300 people since mid-March.
Nine of the dead were taking part in anti-regime demonstrations after weekly prayers. "Six people, including a woman, were killed when the security forces opened fire to disperse protests in several neighbourhoods of Homs," in central Syria, a rights activist said. "Two others were killed in the Qadam neighbourhood of Damascus while one was killed in Daraya" outside Damascus, he said. The other two victims, a mother and daughter, were killed when the army shelled a chicken hatchery in Al-Bara in north-western Idlib province, another rights activist said.
State television gave a conflicting toll, saying gunmen killed one demonstrator in Damascus and two people in Homs, one a policeman. An activist said "more than 100,000 people" protested in several districts of Homs as tanks were deployed. Waves of protesters flooded the streets nation-wide to demand the fall of the regime, with varying reports putting the turnout in the central city of Hama alone at more than half a million. The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, spoke of 500,000 protesters and said this was "the biggest demonstration since the Syrian Revolution broke out" on March 15.