Activists: Syrian soldiers kill 4 protesters

BEIRUT — Syrian security forces opened fire at protesters who streamed into the streets after Friday prayers, hours after troops killed at least four people in raids in the central province of Hama, activists said.

The activists said there was no immediate word on casualties regarding the shooting at protesters after the prayers. The Syrian opposition called for protests Friday, labeling it, “we will continue until we bring down the regime.”

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said intense shooting was heard around the Rawda mosque in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour. It added that forces opened fire at protesters outside a mosque in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

Syria-based rights activist Mustafa Osso said thousands poured into the streets of predominantly Kurdish northeastern towns such as Qamishli, Amouda, and Derbasiyeh.

The observatory said that raids earlier Friday in the central province of Hama left at least four people dead and 11 wounded.

State-run TV said a policeman was killed and four wounded Friday when they came under fire in the village of Busra Hariri in the southern province of Daraa, where the protests sparked six months ago.

A popular uprising began in Syria in mid-March, amid a wave of anti-government protests in the Arab world that have already toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. President Bashar Assad has reacted with deadly force that the U.N. estimates has left some 2,600 people dead.

Syria has disputed accounts of civilian deaths and says the regime is fighting terrorists and thugs — not true reform seekers. A senior Assad adviser, Buthaina Shaaban, said Monday that the toll was really 1,400 — evenly split between security forces and the opposition.