AMMAN (Reuters) – Thousands of people demonstrated across Syria on Friday calling for freedom in defiance of a military crackdown that has killed hundreds, witnesses and activists said.
A rights group said at least one person was killed when security forces opened fire at a demonstration in the town of Sanamin, south of Damascus. Activists in the central city of Homs said security forces fired on at least two protests there.
Syria has barred most international media since the protests broke out two months ago, making it impossible to verify independently accounts from activists and officials.
Reports from rights campaigners said there were protests in several cities, from Banias on the Mediterranean coast -- where the army had deployed this month to crush demonstrations -- to Qamishli in the Kurdish east of the country.
"The sound of gunfire is being heard now in Banias. The demonstration erupted although around 1,000 people from the city and around it have been detained in the last few weeks," said a spokesman for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A witness said security forces fired teargas on protesters in the city of Hama, where around 20,000 people had gathered in two separate areas, a witness said. Security forces also used teargas to disperse around 1,000 protesters in the town of Tel just north of Damascus, another witness said.
The main weekly Muslim prayers on Fridays are a rallying point for protesters because they offer the only opportunity for large gatherings, and have seen the worst death tolls in unrest which rights groups say has killed at least 800 civilians.
The United States, which has condemned the crackdown as barbaric, imposed targeted sanctions against Assad this week and President Barack Obama warned Syria must move away from "the path of murder and mass arrest."
"The Syrian people have shown their courage in demanding a transition to democracy," Obama said in a speech on U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa. "President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition or get out of the way."
Despite strong words from the White House, the West has so far taken only small steps to isolate Assad when compared to its bombing campaign against Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, also accused of killing protesters.
Before the prayers, a witness told Reuters by telephone he saw security forces and checkpoints between many Damascus suburbs, apparently aimed at preventing protesters from marching into the capital.
A resident in the suburb of Hajar al-Aswad reported people demonstrating there and calling for "the overthrow of the regime," the slogan of Arab uprisings which have toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.
ASSAD'S CHALLENGE
The two-month uprising has posed the gravest challenge to Assad's rule. In response, he has lifted a 48-year state of emergency and granted citizenship to stateless Kurds, but also sent tanks to several cities to suppress the protests.
Since the protests first broke out in March, they have spread across southern towns, coastal cities, Damascus suburbs and the central city of Homs. The two main cities of Damascus and Aleppo have remained relatively quiet.
Syrian authorities blame most of the violence on armed groups, backed by Islamists and outside powers, who they say have killed more than 120 soldiers and police. They have recently suggested they believe the protests have peaked.
Western powers, fearing instability across the Middle East if Syria undergoes a dramatic upheaval, at first made only muted criticisms of Assad's actions, but then stepped up their condemnation and imposed sanctions on leading Syrian figures.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it would freeze any assets owned by Syrian officials that fell within U.S. jurisdiction, and bar U.S. individuals and companies from dealing with them.
The sanctions also applied to Syria's vice president, prime minister, interior and defense ministers, the head of military intelligence and director of the political security branch, but it was unclear which assets, if any, would be blocked.
An EU diplomat said the European Union was also likely to extend its sanctions on Syria next week to include Assad.
Damascus condemned the sanctions, saying they targeted the Syrian people and served Israel's interests.
"The sanctions have not and will not affect Syria's independent will," an official source was quoted as saying on state television on Thursday.
(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Peter Graff)
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