Anti-government Protest, Hama | featured news

Syrian security forces shot dead at least five people in Hama on Friday, according to a rights group, as hundreds of thousands staged protests across the country.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets outside Damascus, in Homs and elsewhere in response to the lethal military assaults centered in the besieged city of Hama. The growing civilian toll intensifies international condemnation of the Syrian regime.

Security forces bombed the city for a second day on Monday as the government continued its campaign to crush a popular uprising against the Syrian regime.

The hotbed of opposition to the regime of President Bashar Assad is surrounded by Syrian troops and tanks, apparently poised for an assault. Protests have risen dramatically in Hama, a city loaded with political symbolism.