Syrian forces fire on funeral, China urges bloodshed end

SYRIA: Security Forces shot dead a mourner at a huge funeral on Saturday for demonstrators killed in rare protests in the Syrian capital, as a senior Chinese envoy issued a plea for the bloodshed to end.

The Damascus funerals were for four people, two of them teenagers, killed when security forces fired on protesters in the capital's Mazzeh district, which is overlooked by the presidential palace and houses many government offices and embassies, a human rights group and activists said.

"The funerals in Mazzeh turned into protests -- it was the closest major gathering to Omayyad Square" in the city centre, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul Rahman, told AFP.

Mohammed Shami, a spokesman for activists in Damascus province, echoed him.

"It's the first time there have been demonstrations of such a scale so close to the centre of Damascus," Shami said, adding that some 15,000 people had turned out despite snowfall.

He said the shootings, in which many people were wounded, were followed by a "wave of searches and arrests" across the leafy, upscale residential district.

"People hid wherever they could," he said. "State television didn't cover what happened even though it was only a short distance from the Radio and Television Organisation." Activists described Friday's demonstrations in Damascus as "unprecedented", saying there were 49 in all, and called for a "day of defiance" in the capital on Sunday to galvanise support.

Damascus,Sunday,AFP