Defiant Syria suburb awaits its protest dead

>Some 50 wounded arrived in secret police cars around midnight in Municipality Square, where at least five were killed on Friday when rights activists said security forces fired at protesters demanding political freedoms and an end to graft.Thousands took to the streets in major cities after Friday prayers, defying the security forces who fired teargas and live ammunition and used batons to try to disperse protesters who have dismissed reform gestures by Assad.Secret police agents gave the names of 25 people in hospital with serious injuries, a witness in Douma said, adding that the authorities had promised to deliver the bodies to families of the dead before noon prayers."Society figures made it clear to the authorities that Douma wants its dead. We are expecting 15," one resident said.The authorities, facing mass protests that erupted in the southern city of Deraa 16 days ago, have not been readily handing over bodies, but they might make exception in Douma, a link between Damascus and the countryside where demonstrators have shown a high degree of organization, activists said."Douma is boiling. Syria as a nation may no longer keep sitting idly and let a historic chance for freedom pass by," one of the activists said of the area some 15 km north of the city."Men are realizing that they are hiding at home while their wives are going out in the streets and getting arrested."Another witness who toured the suburb on Saturday said shops in at least one main commercial street were closed in solidarity with the protesters, who gathered after Friday prayers despite the heavy security presence.The killings in Douma brought to at least 60 the number of deaths in protests against Baath Party rule.Activists say Douma has become a meeting point for people from villages near Damascus who have descended on the city.In Deraa, where protests started before they spread to Damascus, the coast and areas in between, security forces dispersed a sit in on Saturday at Serail Square and arrested at least 20 people, witnesses said."Our demands are same, same: freedom, freedom," the protesters, who numbered 200 to 300, chanted.HAMAS SUPPORTMore than 2,000 ethnic Kurds took to the streets of the northeastern city of Qamishli on Friday, despite a promise by Assad to look into granting citizenship to Kurds in Syria without Syrian passports, Kurdish sources said."Our demands are freedom, not just citizenship," chanted the protesters, who were not confronted by security forces. 1 2 Next World United Nations Tweet this Share this Link this Digg this Email Reprints