AMMAN, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Militiamen loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 10 people on Friday in
Syria's main commercial and industrial hub of Aleppo after
pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the city and broke
months of quiet, activists said.
The killings, the deadliest in the city during the 10-month
uprising against 41 years of Assad family rule, occurred in the
tribal Marjeh neighbourhood after security forces fired at a
rally demanding Assad's removal, they said.
Some activists said the 10 killed were all demonstrators s
while others said most were killled in clashes that followed the
shooting on the protest.
There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, which
restricts media access in the country.
The authorities had recruited thousands of militiamen, known
as "shabbiha" from the Aleppo area and deployed them in the
streets at the beginning of the uprising last March to prevent
any demonstrations, activists said.
One activist named Omar said by phone from Aleppo that
dozens of secret policemen had deployed on the main road leading
to Marjeh.
Several protesters where also wounded in a shooting on a
demonstration in Fardos neighbourhood. Other demonstrations
broke out in Seif al-Dawla, Mashhad, Ashrafiah and Maysar
neighbourhoods, the activists said.
Aleppo, Syria's second city situated near the border with
Turkey, has stayed mostly on the sidelines in the uprising.
Its government-appointed clerics and influential Sunni
Muslim merchant class have maintained ties with Assad, who is
from Syria's minority Alwaite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite
Islam.
Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, had used
a carrot-and-stick approach to placate Sunni merchants, who have
has seen their status undermined by the rise of a young group of
businessmen related to or connected with Bashar since he
inherited power in 2000.
(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom; Editing by
Angus MacSwan)
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