- Title: TURKEY: Around a hundred protest in Turkey over Syria crack down
- Date: 1st August 2011
- Summary: GIRL WITH "HAMA" PAINTED ON HER FACE
- Embargoed: 16th August 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey, Turkey
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Conflict,International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA3Z981YD6ECN6NF385LPM7MEE
- Story Text: Around a hundred people took to the streets of Istanbul on Sunday (July 31), chanting slogans against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after rights groups said government forces killed at least 45 civilians in an assault on the city of Hama.
Syrian tanks firing shells and machine guns stormed the city on Sunday in a move to crush demonstrations against al-Assad's rule, residents and activists said.
"Early in the morning, in Hama, tanks entered the city and security forces entered the city in buses. What happened there was against humanity. Around 100 people were killed in Hama. We do not know the exact number, but it is still rising. It is totally against humanity," said one protester in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
"I heard that one member of my family was killed today but I do not know who he is. She could be my mother, sister or father. We can get no information from there. Internet, electricity and phones were cut off. All the people are silent now," another said.
Assad's forces began their assault on the city, scene of a 1982 massacre, at dawn after besieging it for nearly a month.
The official state news agency said scores of were on rooftops and "shooting intensively to terrorize citizens."
But residents said tanks and snipers were shooting at unarmed residential districts, where inhabitants had set up makeshift road blocks to try and stop their advance.
An irregular Alawite militia loyal to Assad, known as 'shabbiha' also accompanied the invading forces in buses, they said.
Hama has particular significance for the anti-Assad movement as Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, sent in troops to crush an Islamist-led uprising there in 1982.
Then, the crackdown razed whole neighborhoods and killed up to 30,000 people in the bloodiest episode of Syria's modern history. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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