BBC News, April 22, 2011
Protesters in Syria have reported 60 people killed by security forces – the highest death toll in five weeks of unrest against President Assad.
Demonstrators were shot when they gathered following Friday prayers, a day after the country’s decades-long state of emergency was lifted.
Many of the deaths reportedly occurred in the village of Ezra and in the Douma suburb of the capital, Damascus.
At least 260 people are said to have died since unrest began last month.
Protesters across the country chanted for the overthrow of the regime, Reuters news agency reported.
President Bashar al-Assad’s lifting of the emergency had been seen as a concession to them.
In their first joint statement since the protests broke out, activists co-ordinating the mass demonstrations demanded the establishment of a democratic political system.
