News from different medias:

Tens of Thousands Rally in Syria; Troops Open Fire.

 Date: July 29th, 2011        

Activists say Syrian troops have fired live ammunition and tear gas on protesters in several cities around the country as tens of thousands are demonstrating, demanding the regime's ouster.

Activists say troops fired Friday in the Mediterranean town of Latakia and fired tear gas in several other places. There was no immediate word on casualties. The activists also say troops are beating up protesters in Banias.

There are also marches in the countryside around Damascus despite an intense crackdown there in the past few days.

Opposition groups have dubbed Friday's protests "Your silence is killing us."

It's an attempt to mobilize sections of the population that have not yet joined the protests and Arab leaders who remain silent on the crackdown against Syria's uprising.

Almost 3,000 missing in Syria crackdown, NGO says.

Date: July 28th, 2011        

 Almost 3,000 people have gone missing in Syria since the start of anti-regime protests more than four months ago, the Avaaz non-governmental organization said in a statement on Thursday.

"Avaaz has today revealed the identities of 2,918 Syrians who have been arrested by Syrian security forces and whose whereabouts are now unknown," the organization said in statement received by AFP in Nicosia.

It said it was launching a campaign Thursday "to call for the release of the nearly 3,000 Syrians who have been forcibly 'disappeared' since the peaceful uprising began on March 15th of this year."

"The in-depth survey conducted by Avaaz estimates that one person is disappearing every hour.”

"In the past week alone there have been more than 1,000 arrests and the number of enforced disappearances has been rapidly rising on a daily basis, as the regime steps up its efforts to repress dissent in the build-up to Ramadan," the statement said.

According to the organization’s executive director, Ricken Patel, "hour by hour, peaceful protesters are plucked from crowds by Syria's infamously brutal security forces, never to be seen again."

Avaaz said 1,634 people have died in the crackdown, 26,000 have been arrested, of whom 12,617 are still in detention.

The group said it is establishing a website with photos and brief descriptions of those who have disappeared which would be regularly updated.

It added it has been working in collaboration with two credible Syrian human rights organizations to collect the names and photos of each disappeared case "to ensure the list of names is wholly verified."

Thirteen killed in Syria as thousands protest July 30, 2011. 

Syrians demonstrate against the government after prayers in Hama. - 7/29/2011

On the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, security forces shot dead up to 13 civilians and wounded dozens more as thousands of Syrians gathered for now-ritual Friday protests calling for regime change.

Ahead of the rallies, a dawn blast rocked an area near Homs, destroying a section of an oil pipeline, SANA state news agency said.“A subversive group targeted an oil pipeline near Homs at dawn with an improvised explosive device,” it said.

Homs Governor Ghassan al-Adel said many residents reported hearing the explosion at around 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT).

“This terrorist operation, a subversive operation of the highest order, took place in a farming area, causing extensive damage,” Adel said, quoted by SANA.

Later in the day, responding to a call under the slogan “Your silence is killing us,” protesters emerged from mosques in cities around the country, human rights activists said, to chide world powers and Syrian notables for inaction in the face of a brutal crackdown.

At least 50,000 people turned out in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour to honor four people killed there Thursday. An estimated 300,000 attended the funerals of three of them, said Sami Abdel-Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Security forces shot dead one young man as protesters there were returning to their homes, Abdel-Rahman said.

The Syrian Local Coordinating Committees, who coordinate and document protests in Syria later told The Daily Star three people had been killed in Deir al-Zour, while at least four had been killed in protests across Damascus and surrounding suburbs.

In Latakia, Abdel-Rahman said: “A young man was killed and several others injured by gunfire from security forces who tried to disperse hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a square.”

Another three people were killed by security forces in similar circumstances in Deraa, where security forces had also reportedly deployed in large numbers, said Abdel-Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights.

Activists reported more that 500,000 people protested in Hama. LCC activists said one person was killed by security forces there.

In the central city of Homs, security forces fired on demonstrators in the Karam al-Shami district, killing one and wounding several people, the LCC activists said.

Rihawi also reported gunfire at Harasta near Damascus, with “more than 15 wounded.”

Men under 50 were barred from entering mosques and all worshippers from taking in camera-equipped mobile phones in Deraa, one of the first places where Syrians rose up against President Bashar Assad’s government in March. All those attending prayers had their identities recorded, activists said.

The protests, called for by a Facebook group The Syrian Revolution 2011, are aimed at putting pressure on the rest of the world to act in the face of Assad’s deadly crackdown on dissent.

“Where are you, defenders of freedom?” and “Enough of your silence … silence is a shot in our chests,” activists said on the website, a driving force behind the protest movement.Deir al-Zour was the site of the only other pipeline attack in Syria since the unprecedented protests erupted in mid-March.

On July 13, an explosion hit a gas pipeline near the town of Mayadin in Deir al-Zour, the main oil- and gas-producing region in Syria, which produces 380,000 barrels of oil per day.

After the killings there Thursday, about 3,000 people gathered outside the house of the new governor, Samir Othman al-Sheikh, to “demand an end to the killing,” said Abdel-Rahman.

Elsewhere, in Qatana, 25 km south of Damascus, armed forces arrived in pickup trucks overnight and carried out arrests before searching for more protesters.

The sweep came as people took to the streets of Damascus and Qatana to protest after security forces killed 11 people Wednesday in Kanaker, 50 km southwest of the capital, activists said.

Among those said to have been detained were two prominent members of a national coordination committee for democratic change, Adnan Wehbe and Nizar al-Samadi.

Around another 100 people were arrested overnight in raids in Damascus, the Observatory told AFP.

The Avaaz non-governmental organization says 1,634 people have died in the crackdown and 26,000 have been arrested, of whom 12,617 are still in detention.

This week it listed 2,918 people “who have been arrested by Syrian security forces and whose whereabouts are now unknown.”

Syria blames the deaths on “armed terrorist groups” it accuses of wanting to spread chaos, and SANA said an armed band had fatally wounded a policeman in the eastern town of Bukamal.

It added that there had been a pro-regime demonstration in the Damascus quarter of Bab Touma to denounced the “terrorist act” committed near Homs.

Activists across Syria are expecting protests to intensify during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with increased attendance at mosques, which have served as gathering points for protesters observing weekly Friday prayers over the last five months.

Activists in Beirut said while they had no specific plans to mobilize people during the month of Ramadan, they believed the added meeting opportunities would manifest in nightly protests, encouraged by anticipated rallying sermons. Others said they feared an even greater response from security forces.