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Anti and pro-government citizens clash after Friday prayers in Damascus, Syria, Friday, March 25. Muzaffar Salman/AP/Press Association Images

Violence erupts around Syria, protesters shot

Syrian government troops opened fire on protesters today, as anti-establishment demonstrations took place across the country following Friday prayers.

VIOLENCE ERUPTED ACROSS Syria on Friday as troops opened fire on protesters in several cities and pro- and anti-government crowds clashed on the tense streets of the capital in the most widespread unrest in years, witnesses said.

Soldiers shot at demonstrators in the restive southern city of Daraa after crowds set fire to a bronze statue of the country’s late president, Hafez Assad, a resident told The Associated Press. He said he heard heavy gunfire in the city center and later saw two bodies and many wounded people being brought to Daraa’s main hospital.

He said thousands of enraged protesters snatched some weapons from a far smaller number of troops and chased them out of the Roman-era old city, taking back control of the al-Omari mosque, which has been the epicenter of eight days of protests in Dara.

Two other residents confirmed to The Associated Press by telephone that protests had retaken the mosque and surrounding area.

The violence erupted after tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets across the country after Friday prayers, shouting calls for greater freedoms in support of a more than week-long uprising in Daraa, according to witnesses, activists and footage posted online.

The demonstrations and ensuing crackdown were a major escalation of the showdown between President Bashar Assad’s regime and the crowds in Daraa who — inspired by pro-democracy unrest elsewhere in the Arab world — began protesting conditions in the drought-stricken south last week in demonstrations that have now spread around the country.

After dark, troops opened fire on protesters in Maadamiyeh, a suburb of the capital, Damascus, a witness told the AP. An activist in contact with people there said three had been killed.

Another activist told the AP that witnesses in the National Hospital in the coastal city of Latakia had reported seeing four people shot dead. Another was reported slain in the central city of Homs, he said.

None of the accounts could be immediately be independently confirmed in Syria, which maintains tight restrictions on the press.

In Damascus, people shouting in support of the Daraa protesters clashed with regime supporters outside the historic Umayyad mosque, hitting each other with leather belts.

An activist in Damascus in touch with eyewitnesses in the southern village of Sanamein said troops there opened fire on demonstrators trying to march to Daraa, a short distance away. He said there had been witness reports of fatalities, some claiming as many as 20 slain, but those could not be independently confirmed.

- AP

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    Mute Donal Ronan
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 10:32 AM

    I have a question, maybe someone is able to answer??.
    Why was there no reporting or mention in any of the media of this circuit court judges case in progress. Was there a gagging order?.
    RTE and all the other media were camped outside the court in Limerick on a hurlers case.

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    Mute CP
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 10:59 AM

    @Donal Ronan: Judge found guilty of sexually assaulting six young men while he was a teacher in the 1990s https://jrnl.ie/6257810

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    Mute Donal Ronan
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 11:02 AM

    @CP: Sorry CP, that doesn’t answer the question. ‘case in progress’, not the decision. Justice is supposed to be in public, except in exceptional circumstances.

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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 11:11 AM

    @CP: Should all the sexual assault cases he presided over and gave lenient sentence to people be re examined?

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    Mute BanIslam.
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 1:37 PM

    @Donal Ronan: So go ahead and be a journalist and stop bothering us.
    Most catho pedo aren’t reported about anyway. It’s filled with them in Ireland.

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    Mute CP
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 1:43 PM

    @Donal Ronan: I merely answered your question as to why they are no coverage of said case like you implied, it might not be to your liking but I’ve seen multiple stories about this case

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    Mute CP
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 1:45 PM

    @Dave Barrett: 100% they should

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    Mute Paul C
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 2:01 PM

    @Donal Ronan: I read abouts it on here earlier this week.

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    Mute Harry Whelks
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 11:46 AM

    Alarms advertise the fact that a house is empty for the weekend. They are very unlikely to be responded to by the police. Some incarcerated burglars also report that an alarm indicates that there is something of value within the property and can make it paradoxically more attractive as a target in some instances.

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    Mute BanIslam.
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 1:39 PM

    @Harry Whelks: It’s stupid. Alarm are a deterent for 99% of burglaries.
    Real bruglars who target real valuables do not target random houses.

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    Mute thomas molloy
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    Dec 23rd 2023, 1:55 PM

    Workhouse jail farm or camp– houses minimum custody offenders serving short sentences with constructive work programs. BUREAU OF JAIL MANAGEMENT AND PENOLOGY ( BJMP ) It was created pursuant to Sec. 60, R.A. 6975.

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