Hundreds of police and militiamen loyal to Syria's president Bashar al-Assad used batons to attack thousands of pro-democracy protesters in the country's mainly Kurdish city of Qamishli today, witnesses said.
Police fired teargas to disperse protesters, injuring several people, witnesses added, in first major crackdown on Kurdish demonstrators reported since the start of the four-month uprising against Assad's rule.
The protesters shouted slogans demanding political freedoms, an end to discrimination against Syria's Kurdish minority, witnesses said.
At least five civilians were killed overnight as tanks attacked districts in the city of Homs during a crackdown on protests.
Homs, a city of 165 km (100 miles) north of Damascus, is the latest focus of a military campaign to crush four months or demonstrations against Mr Assad's autocratic rule.
The killings brought to 38 the number of civilians killed in intensified assaults on main residential districts of the city this week, residents and activists said.
Reuters
