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Syrians protest against Arab inaction

“The desertion of the Arabs and the silence of the Muslims are the hardest things facing Syrians,” read a sign held up at a protest by hundreds of people in Kafaroma, in Idlib province in the northwest.

Protesters took to the streets despite a fierce assault on the Idlib town of Maaret al-Numan by security forces bidding to crush the year-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, monitors said.

Nationwide, at least 11 people were killed on Friday, most of them civilians, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“We will resist to the last drop of blood” and “Syria is bleeding,” said other placards held up by protesters at Irbin, near Damascus, as seen in an activist video posted online.

Internet-based activist group The Syrian Revolution 2011, one of the main motors of the uprising, called for people to take to the streets after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday to protest against the Arab world’s inaction.

“The Muslims and the Arabs have abandoned us ... but God is with us ... and our determination will carry us to victory,” the group said on its Facebook page.

An Arab summit in Baghdad on Thursday, largely ignored by Sunni Arab states, approved a resolution calling for an end to the Syrian regime’s crackdown on dissent, for the opposition to unite and for parties to the conflict to launch a “serious national dialogue.”

In Damascus, dozens of people rallied in the neighbourhood of Kfar Sousa, braving the strong presence of security forces who shot at one group of demonstrators.

Protests were also held in the Damascus suburbs of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and Douma, where worshippers emerged from around a dozen mosques, reported activist Mohammed Said, who added that regime forces opened fire to disperse them.

Hundreds of people marched through the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, while protesters in the second-largest city of Aleppo chanted: “O God, we have only you to help us.”

Activists in Syria have for more than a year staged anti-regime protests each Friday after the main Muslim prayers. They have been violently put down by Assad’s forces.

The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have died in the revolt, which many fear has brought Syria to the verge of civil war.

On Thursday, activists blocked a street and burned tyres in the Al-Aassali neighbourhood of Damascus to protest the “failure of the Arab League,” according to a video posted on the Internet.