Al Jazeera's live coverage of the continuing unrest in Syria

Here below, for the record, is a copy of Al Jazeera's live coverage of the continuing unrest in Syria, Friday, 25 March 2011.

Syria Live Blog - March 25
By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on March 25th, 2011 - blogs.aljazeera.net:

As the situation in Syria escalates, we update you with the latest developments from our correspondents, news agencies and citizens across the globe.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

AJE Live Stream - Special Coverage: Syria Unrest - Region in turmoil

(All times are local in Syria GMT+2)
10:54pm
Thousands of supporters of president Bashar al-Assad flood the streets of Damascus tonight to counter demonstrations against his regime. Many people drive through town, chanting and honking in support of the president.

10:10pm
In this YouTube clip protesters in the central square of Daraa destroy the portrait of president Bashar Al-Assad:

9:58pm
More YouTube footage of demonstrations in Homs. The protesters in this clip rip a banner with the image of the late president Hafez Al-Assad to pieces:

9:52pm
A large crowd continues to surround the Al Jazeera bureau in Damascus. The pro-regime protesters are threatening to burn or storm it.

8:58pm
Alistair Burt, UK's Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, expressed concern about the ongoing violence in Syria:

I have been watching closely the situation in Syria, and am deeply concerned by the use of force against demonstrators. I condemn the violence that has resulted in a large number of deaths in Deraa. All Syrians have a right to express their views peacefully.

I call on the Syrian government to respect the people’s right to peaceful protest and to address their legitimate grievances. I call for restraint on all sides but in particular from the Syrian security forces. Violence is never the right answer to these situations.

I note the statement from the President’s Advisor, Butheina Shabaan, that the Syrian government is looking at political reforms. I call on the Syrian government to implement these proposals without delay and to engage peacefully on the legitimate demands of the Syrian people, who will be looking for action to back up such statements.

8:53pm
Ten people were killed today in clashes between protesters and security forces in the southern Syrian city of Sanamin, a high-ranking official told AFP news agency.

8:38pm
Anas al-Abda, the chairman of the Movement for Justice and Development in Syria, tells Al Jazeera that the pro-regime protests in Damascus are "most probably fabricated and organised by the regime of Bashar Al-Assad".

8:15pm
Maamoun Al-Homsi,a leading Syrian opposition figure, called on the international community to intervene to stop "the massacres against civilians by President Bashar al-Assad's regime" in protests across Syria.

"There are killed and wounded and those who are arrested in all the provinces," he told Reuters by telephone from Canada, referring to protests that spread beyond the southern town of Daraa on Friday challenging Assad's rule.

7:58pm
The United States calls on the Syrian government to stop violence against demonstrators and the arrests of human rights activists, White House spokesman Jay Carney says.

We strongly condemn the Syrian government's attempts to repress and intimidate demonstrators.

7:52pm
Some hundred pro-regime protesters are surrounding the Al Jazeera office in Damascus, asking Al Jazeera to air their support for president al-Assad live on TV. If not, they are threatening to storm the office.

7:21pm
Security forces killed three people in the Mouadamieh district of Damascus after a crowd confronted a procession of cars driven by supporters of president Bashar al-Assad, residents said.

"The cars entered Mouadamieh after a protest by residents to denounce the killings in (the southern city) of Deraa," one of the residents said.

7:03pm
A map of Syria showing all the cities that saw protests today:

6:57pm
This image comes from SyrianFreePress's Channel and is yet another reference to president Bashar al-Assad. It also reads. Your turn has come, doctor:

6:49pm
This photo of graffiti in Syria was posted on Twitter. It reads: "Your turn has come, doctor" - a reverence to president Bashar Al-Assad, who is also an eye-doctor.

5:43pm
First video of dead bodies emerges after Syrian security forces open fire on protesters near Daraa WARNING - images in this video might not be suitable for some viewers [Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of this footage]:

5:33pm
Quick recap of the latest developments: Protests are spreading across Syria.

In the southern city of Daraa, which has been in revolt for a week, gunfire and tear gas scattered a crowd of thousands after people lit a fire under a statue of late president Hafez al-Assad.

Al Jazeera aired comments by a man who said security forces had killed 20 people on Friday in the nearby town of Sanamein.

In Hama, in the centre of the country, where Hafez al-Assad put down an Islamist revolt in 1982 at a cost of many thousands of lives, residents said people streamed through the streets after weekly prayers chanting "Freedom is ringing out!" – a slogan heard in uprisings sweeping the rest of the Arab world.

5:25pm
More YouToube footage of the protests - this latest one is from Latakia, where protesters claim at leats one person was killed by security forces [Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of this footage]:

5:13pm
The Syrian Information Ministry claims that there were armed people among the protestors in Daraa. Security forces were shot at and returned fire, Reem Haddad, an Information Ministry spokesperson, told Al Jazeera.

5:06pm
Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Damascus, says:

It is escalating very quickly. The protests are spreading throughout Syria. There are several casualties, some people say eight, and some say 20. It is not possible to independently verify these numbers.

4:58pm
A witness and Deraa resident who was at the protest earlier tells Al Jazeera:

It was peaceful. Protesters tried pull down a statue of president Al-Assad, then the police opened fire on the protesters.

4:54pm
Syrian security forces kill at least 20 people in town of Sanamein, near Deraa, a witness tells Al Jazeera:

There are more than 20 martyrs .... they (security forces) opened fire haphazardly.

4:27pm
Syria's information minister seems to have missed something. He says the situation is "totally calm" throughout the country. Mohsen Bilal told Spanish radio Cadena Ser:

There is a totally peaceful climate in the Syrian towns and the terrorists have been arrested.

4:10pm
Several people were killed on Friday when a demonstration headed to the Syrian protest city of Daraa was raked by gunfire, a human rights activist told AFP news agency.

Several protesters were killed in a shooting in Sanamen as they were headed toward Daraa.

The activist requested anonymity. The news could not be confirmed by independent sources or hospitals in the area.

4:06pm
YouTube footage of demonstrations throughout seems to be flooding the web. This latest one is from Deraa [Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of this footage]:

3:54pm
More YouTube footage of the demonstrations in Damascus in support for Deraa [Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of this footage]:

3:48pm
France called for the "rapid and effective implementation" of reforms promised by Syria, including the lifting of the state of emergency in place for nearly five decades. Foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said:

France has taken note of the reforms announced yesterday by Syrian authorities. We call for the rapid and effective implementation of these measures, including the lifting of the state of emergency and the release of prisoners detained for having participated in protests.

On Thursday the regime of president Bashar al-Assad announced the release of all activists locked up sinceanti-government demonstrations began a month ago, and said it might scrap the 1963 emergency law.

3:36pm
More video is showing up on YouTube of after-prayer protests. This latest one is from Homs. The protesters march in solidarity with the people of Deraa [Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of this footage]:

3:28pm
Protesters in Deraa are shouting slogans denouncing Maher al-Assad, brother of the Syrian president and head of the Republican Guard, a witness tells Reuters. As they headed to the main square in the city after the funeral of at least five protesters killed by security forces this week, thousands chanted:

Maher you coward. Send your troops to liberate the Golan

Israel captured the Golan Heights in a 1967 war.

3:21pm
About 1,000 people rallied in the town of Tel, just north of Damascus, in support of the city of Deraa, and denounced two relatives of president Bashar al-Assad as "thieves", witnesses said.

At least 44 people have been killed in Deraa in a police crackdown on protests by reformists that began a week ago.

3:05pm
More video of protests in Syria via Facebook - this time in Hama, a city just north of Homs. Hamah was was the scene of a 1982 attack by Syrian security forces that killed thousands. The protesters are chanting for more freedom [Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of this footage].

2:55pm
Here is how the Syrian authorities ended a protest in the Grand Ummayad mosque in Aleppo today [Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the authenticity of this footage]:

2:35pm
Al Jazeera's special correspondent, reporting from among the pro-reform demonstrators in Daraa, said: "No one here is calling for a regime change".
"No one here is chanting slogans against the president Bashar al-Assad. The people here say they want freedom, they want reforms."

1:55pm
Human rights campaigners, Syrian intellectuals and other analysts agreed that today will give a clearer indication of whether the rebellion will spread or falter.
"When Friday is over, we'll have a much better idea what direction this is going in," said one political analyst, who works as an adviser to the government.

1:38pm
There were other, smaller-scale protests held for the first time in Homs, Banias and Deir Ezzor, but they were not dealt with so violently, with demonstrators arrested rather than shot.

Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from the capital Damascus, said "it is a new Syria".

1:40pm
Hundreds of Syrian villagers march to Daraa in support of the city, chanting:

"Freedom is ringing".

1:38pm
Recap:

- Syria's "Day of Dignity" is under way, despite a nationwide security clampdown and a reform pledge by the government suggesting some of the "just" demands by protesters could be met, including political reforms.

- In Daraa, at the funeral of six of the victims shot dead by police, protesters called for freedom and for political reform.

- No security forces were present at the funerals after an agreement was made with local authorities to stay away.

- A harsh response by security forces to anti-government demonstrations in Daraa, 100 kilometres south of Damascus, has so far failed to quash protests in the city despite a spiralling civilian death toll since demonstrations began there a week ago.

- At least 44 people are believed to have been shot and killed in Daraa by security forces backed by the military since last Friday, with scores more wounded, according to human rights activists and a city hospital official.
1:33pm
A counter demonstration took place by supporters of President Assad, who is facing an unprecedented challenge to his 11 year rule.

1:20pm
Syrian secret police broke up demonstrations in the centre of the Syrian capital and arrested dozens of people, according to witness reports.

1:15pm
At least 200 people marched in the centre of Damascus after prayers in support of Daraa, scene of protests against Baath Party rule, a witness said.
"We sacrifice our blood, our soul, for you Daraa," they chanted as they were met by Assad loyalists chanting in support of the Syrian leader.
1:11pm
Al Jazeera's correspondent said:

"About 100 protesters are marching in Mezze following Friday prayers, chanting freedom freedom, peaceful peaceful...".

1:05pm
Thousands of mourners chanting for freedom march in Daraa city behind coffins of dead protesters.

1:00pm
Syrian secret police arrest at least three people in Damascus among marchers in support of Daraa city.

Protesters shouting for freedom gathered in the capital and other areas around the country on Friday as security forces ordered journalists to leave the southern city where a brutal weeklong siege on demonstrations killed dozens of people.

Daraa, the main city of southern Syria's drought-parched agricultural heartland, has become a flashpoint for protests in a country whose leadership stands unafraid of using extreme violence to quash internal unrest.
12:52pm
On Thursday, Sheikh Morshed Mashouq al-Khaznawi, a cleric from the predominantly Syrian Kurdish town of Qamishli, described Bashar al-Assad as a "tyrant".
"People are rising up in the face of the tyrant of Syria, Assad, and his gang, who have oppressed, suppressed and become haughty," he said.

He called on the Syrian population (in this video message) to "march in support for the revolution of youth" during Friday's 'Day of Dignity'.
12:00pm
Security forces appear to be trying to reduce tension in the southern city of Daraa where authorities launched a deadly, weeklong crackdown on protesters.

Syrian troops have dismantled checkpoints in Daraa and there was no visible army presence on the streets for the first time since last Friday.
10:53am
Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from the capital Damascus, said:
"We have to remember that the protests have been confined to Daraa, that despite seven days of very strong clashes that resulted in the deaths of dozens of people, the capital and other Syrian towns remain quiet."

But she stressed the importance of not undermining the planned 'Day of Dignity' protests, saying "Friday is going to be a challenge and a test for the activists and the government".

10:16am
We are hearing reports that president Bashar al-Assad, who faces the most serious unrest of his 11-year tenure, will speak to his nation within the next few hours to try to calm the situation.

On Thursday, Assad's government pledged to consider lifting some of the country's most repressive laws in an attempt to stop the weeklong uprising in Daraa and prevent it from spreading.

But many activists rejected those promises and called for demonstrations around the country on Friday.
10:00am
These were the scenes on the streets of Daraa on Wednesday, after security forces stormed a mosque in the southern city:

9:33am
Haitham Maleh, a prominent Syrian opposition figure, says the country is "a bomb, ready to explode" as protesters demand freedom and an end to president Bashar al-Assad's "cancerous regime".

He told The World Today Thursday's concessions do not go far enough.

Maleh, who was released from prison earlier this month under an amnesty for older political prisoners, says his countrymen are ready for a revolution.

The 80-year-old lawyer is one of Syria's most prominent human rights campaigners.
9:00am
Authorities in Syria are bracing for the possibility of further protests, following a week of unrest that has left dozens dead in Daraa city.

Protests have been planned in Daraa and in the nation's capital, Damascus for after Friday prayers. Organisers have dubbed it a "Day of Dignity".

A statement posted yesterday on the Facebook page "The Syrian Revolution 2011" called for demonstrations in all Syrian provinces.

Click here: Syria braces for 'day of dignity' rallies - for more on this story.

8:48am
Good morning, welcome to Al Jazeera's live coverage of the continuing unrest in Syria.

Thousands March to Protest Syria Killings

Thousands March to Protest Syria Killings
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: Thursday, 24 March 2011. Full copy:

DAMASCUS, Syria — Thousands of people gathered in protest at funerals in the southern city of Dara’a on Thursday, despite a major crackdown by Syrian security forces that suggested that leaders here would not tolerate pro-democracy protests like those that have swept other Arab nations.

An assault on the central mosque there early Wednesday, and subsequent attacks by security forces, left an unknown number of deaths, some of which appeared to be documented in bloody videos posted on YouTube. An American official who would speak only on background about intelligence reporting said that “about 15 people” were killed by forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Reuters quoted an unnamed hospital official in the city as putting the death toll at 37. Various Web sites were collecting names of those believed to be killed.

No violence was reported in the huge gatherings around the funerals for the dead on Thursday.

Information has trickled out slowly and incompletely from Syria, one of the most closed and repressive nations in the Middle East, which is closely allied both to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. But as the death toll from the Dara’a crackdown rose, Mr. Assad faced growing pressure both internally, as the protests spread around the south, and from other nations.

After calling the protesters’ grievances “justified,” one of Mr. Assad’s top advisers, Bouthaina Shaaban, announced a series of reforms that have been demanded by the protesters, including possibly suspending the long state of emergency rule, reducing corruption, establishing political parties and opening up the media.

Her statements came after Britain, France, Germany and the United Nations all condemned the violence.

Andrew J. Tabler, who spent a decade living in Syria and is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said six days of protests of this size were unknown in Syria since at least 1982. In February of that year, Mr. Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, killed at least 10,000 people in an assault on the city of Hama to definitively end an Islamist uprising.

"The regime is under serious pressure, and it’s hard to predict where this may lead," he said.

The protests are in a Sunni area and the turmoil threatens to “crack the Sunni veneer” of the government of Mr. Assad, who is of the Alawite religious minority, said Mr. Tabler. But he said the protests have not so far taken on a strong sectarian character and are mainly a response to years of broken promises and delays in carrying out political reforms.

The crackdown in Dara’a began early on Wednesday after the Syrian Army reinforced the police presence in the city, near the Jordanian border, and confronted a group of protesters who had gathered in and around the Omari mosque in the city center. Activists and news reports said five or six people were killed after the forces tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas and then live ammunition.

Among the dead was Ali al-Mahameed, a doctor, who witnesses said was shot while tending to the injured. At least one person was killed after Dr. Mahameed’s funeral on Wednesday afternoon, attended by thousands of people, some of whom tried to return to the city center. Syrian state television said Wednesday that it was not security forces who that had killed people at the mosque but rather an “armed gang.” The broadcast showed guns, grenades, ammunition and money that was said to have been taken from the mosque after a police raid. The report acknowledged four dead.

The official SANA news agency reported that the “gang” had killed a doctor, a medical worker and a driver in an ambulance and “security forces faced down those aggressors and managed to shoot and wound a few of them.”

Despite emergency laws that have banned public gatherings for nearly 50 years, protests have grown in the last week in several cities around Syria. The largest have been in Dara’a, with thousands taking to the streets on Friday and again on Sunday, when protesters burned government buildings and clashed with the police. Several people were reported to have died.

The mosque’s imam, Ahmed al-Sayasna, told the news channel Al Arabiya that there were no weapons in the mosque, which he said was under police control.

A video posted on YouTube showed the mosque with a voice coming from the loudspeakers addressing the police: “Who would kill his own people? You are our sons, you are our brother.” Armed security forces could be seen running at a distance, amid gun shots and cries for help.

“Streets are full of scores of wounded and many dead, and no one can go to their rescue,” a witness said.

Scott Shane contributed reporting from Washington.