8:19 AM
Bapak
(CNN) -- Violence raged in the Syrian city of Hama as approximately a dozen people died and anti-government protests unfolded across the restive country.
Hama endured steady shelling and bombing Friday morning while the government's military offensive continued in full swing, said a resident whom CNN has not identified for his safety. The man said casualties had occurred, but couldn't say how many.
Elsewhere, opposition members said thousands kicked off marches across the country after Muslim prayers, as they have every Friday for weeks, demanding political reforms or the fall of the regime and railing against the violent security crackdown directed at peaceful protesters.
Each Friday, nationwide protests have had a theme. This week's is "God is With Us."
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an activist group, reported 15 deaths, 11 in the Damascus suburbs of Arbeen, Dumair, and Mouadamyeh, three in the western city of Homs, and one in the southern city of Daraa.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another activist group, reported 11 deaths and many injuries as security forces fired on demonstrators in Homs and around Damascus. It said tanks were in the northeastern city of Deir Ezzor.
There, tribal men were preparing for an assault by the military, according to a video posted on YouTube. The video shows a man telling tribal leaders that he had received information that the army would conduct an operation and asking the men to prepare.
Another man says that people in other areas have tried to resist peacefully, but without success. He says that jihad must be the answer if peaceful resistance does not succeed in effecting change. He adds that jihad would not be a waste of Muslim blood -- but a means of protecting it.
A third man says that more than five months of efforts to negotiate with the regime have proved fruitless, and that the regime is murderous.
At that point, a man in the background asked the men to stop filming. CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the video.
More than 2,000 people, the vast majority of them protesters, have died since anti-government demonstrations erupted nearly five months ago, the observatory said. Activists blame the deaths of demonstrators on security forces, but the Syrian government has consistently attributed the violence to "armed groups."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said President Bashar al-Assad has lost legitimacy as a leader and noted the mounting death toll.
"Sometimes you lose sight of the incredible tragedy unfolding on the streets by just looking at the numbers which are so numbing, but the shooting death of a 1-year-old recently by the Syrian regime's tanks and troops is a very stark example of what is going on," she told reporters Thursday.
"We think, to date, the government is responsible for the deaths of more than 2,000 people of all ages."
Hama, a center of the country's anti-government movement, has been hit particularly hard in recent days by clashes and a military offensive.
Hama was the site of the bloody 1982 crackdown by the Alawite-dominated government against a Muslim Brotherhood uprising. Memories of that siege, carried out by the late President Hafez al-Assad, the current president's father, have reverberated across the country and in the city.
Syria state TV, which aired video of a tank and rubble on deserted Hama streets Friday, reported that the army carried out an operation "to restore the peace of mind to the families" of Hama.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency has said "armed terrorist groups perpetrated acts of sabotage and killing through setting up barricades, braking off roads, attacking and burning police stations using different kinds of weapons."
The resident who spoke to CNN said he fled his Hama neighborhood because of the intensity of the shelling and gunfire. With sounds of gunfire and blasts audible in the background, he said, "From this morning, shelling and bombing haven't stopped for three hours."
"They shoot right and left, right and left. We can't go anywhere. ... There are snipers all around."
The Hama resident, who spoke via satellite phone, said electricity, water, mobile, landlines, and Internet lines had been cut.
"Tanks have entered the city. I know some injured people in the hospital -- three injured people in the hospital that have passed away because the electricity has been cut. Children, babies have passed away."
Compounding the devastation is the mounting humanitarian emergency, the resident said, citing a lack of electricity and rotting food.
"So now we don't have food to eat," he said. "We just are fasting."
On Thursday, at least 109 people died in and around Hama, said Avaaz, a global activist group, citing a medical source. Another activist network, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, said 30 people were killed Wednesday in Hama.
CNN is unable to independently confirm death tolls or events in Syria, which has restricted access to the country by international journalists, including CNN's.CNN's Arwa Damon, Nada Husseini, Kamal Ghattas, Salma Abdelaziz, Tracy Doueiry and Jack Maddox contributed to this reportView the original article here
Posted in: Activists,Syrias
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