Syrian security forces attack village

Syrian security forces have fired upon people in the village of Bayda, near the town of Baniyas in the country's northeast, injuring at least one person, witnesses have told Al Jazeera.

On Sunday, security forces in Baniyas killed at least four pro-reform protesters and left another 17 wounded, human rights groups have said.

"Security forces and armed men are firing machine guns indiscriminately at [Bayda]," a witness said on Tuesday.

"The gunfire against Bayda is intense like the rain. At least one person was injured," another witness said, describing the violence in the village, which is 10km south of Baniyas.

"What we are hearing from residents [in Bayda] is that there has been a campaign of arrests, those who have been detained are taken to the main square ... and eyewitnesses say they are being brutally beaten," reported Al Jazeera's Rula Amin from Damascus.

"In Baniyas ... the city is still sealed, tension is very high ... and [there is a] heavy security presence."

"The goal of the attack is probably the arrest of Anas al-Shukri [one of the leaders of the opposition movement]," a human rights activist, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

Al-Shukri told the AFP news agency that security forces and the army were "continu[ing] to assault Baniyas".

The AP news agency reported that pro-government armed men were also attacking the village of Beit Jnad, near Baida, on Tuesday.

Haitham al-Maleh, an opposition activist, said attackers were using automatic rifles in the two villages.

A resident from a third village nearby said he could hear the sound of heavy gunfire coming from the two villages.

"Some residents of the two villages took part in the anti-regime protests in Baniyas," the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

Also on Tuesday, Khalil Matouk, a human rights lawyer, told AFP that Ghiyath Oyun al-Sood, secretary-general of the Democratic People's Party (a banned communist party) had been arrested while shopping near his home in southern Damascus.

Meanwhile, about 600 Kurds held a one-hour long peaceful protest demonstration in the village of Ain Arab in the northern part of the country, Radif Mustapha, the head of the Rased Kurdish human rights group told AFP. The protesters were calling for reforms and the release of political prisoners.

Meeting with opposition

Al Jazeera's Amin reported that an opposition delegation from the city of Daraa, where protests against the government first began several weeks ago, had met with the country's vice-president on Tuesday.

"The people of Daraa had a delegation led by the imam of the Omari mosque [where protests started] ... met with Syria's vice-president Farouk al-Sharra. This is a very significant step.

"The people we spoke to, including this imam, told us that they met the vice-president, they gave him their list of demands, some have to do with Daraa - like pulling out the heavy security that's stationed there, releasing all prisoners - and some demands have to do with all of Syria, like lifting the state of emergency law, giving them more political freedoms and to stop the heavyhandedness of security forces in their daily lives."

The opposition also demanded that the status of those who are still missing after the protests were broken up by security forces be revealed, and that the families of those who were killed during protests in Daraa be provided a monthly salary.

"What the government wants of course is for the protests to stop, and so far, of course, there is no conclusion. But according to the delegation ... preparations are underway to arrange a meeting between a delegation from Daraa and the president himself. Maybe as soon as tomorrow," Amin said.

'Families evacuated'

The official Sana news agency said nine soldiers, including two officers, were killed on Sunday when their patrol was ambushed outside Baniyas, 280km northwest of Damascus.

Residents of Baniyas say there is a shortage of bread in the city, and that electricity and communications services are intermittent, if not cut entirely.

Abdelbasset, an electrician, told AFP that the situation was "extremely bad".

"The army was redeployed outside the city and the security forces and shabbiha [government agents] conducted a number of arrests. The town is dead, shops are closed," he said.

"Baniyas is surrounded by tanks, no one can get in or out. It is like a prison," said Yasser, a shopkeeper.

Preacher Sheikh Mohammed said: "Several families evacuated women and children [to the outskirts of the town], because we are in the Ras Al-Nabee neighbourhood which was targetted by gunfire from Al-Quz neighbourhood."

The interior ministry on April 9 warned that the government would deal harshly with "armed groups" who "shoot indiscriminately" on "both demonstrators and security forces".

On Tuesday, state media criticised "those sowing trouble, disorder and discord when Syria has already begun to address the problems and pave the road for change and reform".

Medical access hindered

The US presidency on Tuesday condemned Syria's repression of protests, terming it "outrageous" in a statement where it expressed concern about the reports of wounded people being denied medical care.

The British government, meanwhile, has urged Syrians to remain "cautious" when in public places.

Iran, meanwhile, has termed anti-government protests in Syria a western plot to undermine a government that supports "resistance" in the Middle East, the country's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

"What is happening in Syria is a mischievous act of Westerners, particularly Americans and Zionists," Ramin Mehmanparast, a spokesman, told reporters.

"We recommend those in Syria exercise caution and maintain a high level of security awareness, particularly in public places and on the roads, and avoid large crowds and demonstrations," said Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East in a statement on Tuesday.

Protests that erupted in Syria more than three weeks ago have steadily grown, with tens of thousands of people calling for sweeping reforms to the country's political system.

The Damascus Declaration, Syria's leading pro-democracy group, has urged leaders of the Arab League to impose sanctions onthe regime, and puts the death toll from the unrest at over 200, AP reported.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/201141212342295758.html