Damascus, Oct 8 : Ten Syrians, including a prominent Kurdish rights activist, were killed today as thousands of people rallied against President Bashar al-Assad's regime and in support of a newly formed opposition front, activists said.
The fresh surge of violence came as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Assad will have to leave power if he fails to implement reforms acceptable to the opposition, and Damascus again blamed “terrorists” for the unrest. Four civilians, including two elderly men, were shot dead in the central city of Homs by security forces and four others in the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Kurdish activist and opposition spokesman Meshaal Tamo, 53, was killed when four masked gunmen stormed his house in Qamishli in the north and opened fire, also wounding his son and another fellow activist in the Kurdish Future Party, activists said.Thousands of Kurds took to the streets in Qamishli after Tamo's death, and gathered outside the hospital where his body was taken.
The official SANA news agency reported Tamo's “assassination,” but gave a different account of his death. It said he was killed “by gunmen in a black car who fired at his car.”Tamo, a member of the newly formed Syrian National Council (SNC) opposition grouping, had been released recently after three and a half years in prison.
A 10th man was shot dead today by security forces in the flashpoint northern town of Jisr al-Shughur near the Turkish border, the Local Coordination Committees activist network reported. AFP
