Pro-democracy protests sweep Syria, 22 killed

(Reuters) - Protests erupted across Syria against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad on Friday and sources said 22 people were killed in the southern city of Deraa, the cradle of the unrest.

In the east, thousands of ethnic Kurds demonstrated for reform despite the president's offer this week to ease rules which bar many Kurds from citizenship, activists said.

Protests swept the country of 20 million people, from the Mediterranean port of Latakia to Albu Kamal on the Iraqi border, as demonstrations entered a fourth week in defiance of Assad's security crackdown and growing list of reform pledges.

"Freedom, freedom, we want freedom," thousands of protesters chanted in many Syrian cities. Some shouted: "We sacrifice our blood and soul for you, Deraa."

Residents said security forces used water cannon and smoke bombs to break up 2,000 protesters in Hama, where thousands of people were killed in 1982 when Assad's father Hafez al-Assad crushed an armed uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood.

In Deraa, where demonstrations first broke out in March, residents said security forces fired on thousands of protesters, who set fire to a building belonging to the ruling Baath Party and smashed a statue of the president's brother, Basil.

A volunteer at Deraa hospital and an activist said 22 people were killed and 120 wounded. It took the death toll in three weeks of protests to more than 90.

State television said armed groups killed 19 policemen and wounded 75 in Deraa.

Authorities have blamed armed groups for the violence and state television broadcast footage on Friday of plain clothed gunmen it said fired at security forces and civilians alike.

Syria has prevented other news media from reporting from Deraa.

"I saw pools of blood and three bodies in the street being picked up by relatives," a Deraa resident told Reuters by phone.

"There were snipers on roofs. Gunfire was heavy. The injured are being taken to homes. No one trusts putting his relative in a hospital in these circumstances," he added. Many protesters feared they would be arrested if taken to clinics.

BODIES LYING ON STREETS

Another resident who gave his name as Abu Salem said many bodies were lying on the streets of Deraa.

"But no one can reach them because the area is surrounded," he said, suggesting that death toll could be higher than first believed.