Syrian Troops Open Fire on Protesters in Several Cities - Michael Slackman

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/middleeast/26syria.html?partner=rss&emc=rss


It was the most serious challenge to 40 years of repressive rule by the Assad family since 1982, when the president at the time, Hafez al-Assad, massacred at least 10,000 protesters in Hama, a city in northern Syria.
Human rights groups said that since protests began seven days ago in the south, 38 people had been killed by government forces — and it appeared that many more were killed on Friday. Precise details were hard to obtain because the government sealed off the area to reporters and would not let foreign news media into the country.