Pope John Paul II

Maher al-Assad (left) and Bashar al-Assad

AMMAN, (Reuters) – Security forces arrested hundreds  of pro-democracy sympathisers in cities across Syria after  taking control of the city of Deraa, cradle of the uprising  against President Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic rule.
Looking for men under 40 years old, security forces broke  into houses yesterday in the old quarter of Deraa, which a  tank-backed force led by Assad’s brother Maher shelled into  submission the day before, witnesses told Reuters by telephone.

Maher al-Assad (left) and Bashar al-Assad

Prominent rights campaigners were also arrested in the  eastern cities of Qamishli, Raqqa and in suburbs of Damascus,  along with scores of ordinary Syrians active in mass protests  demanding political freedoms and an end to corruption.

Syrians kept up the protests despite the arrests and violent  repression that has resulted in the killing of at least 560  civilians by Assad’s security forces, human rights groups say.

In the central city of Homs thousands marched chanting  “downfall of the regime”.

In the town of Rastan to the north a funeral was held for 17  men killed when military intelligence agents fired at a protest  on Friday during which the names of 50 resigning ruling Baath  Party members were being read.

Signs of discontent have been also emerging in the majority  Sunni army, which is controlled by minority Alawite officers,  the same sect as Assad.

Two thousand Kurds in the village of Karbawi near Qamishli  attended the funeral of 20-year-old conscript Ahmad Fanar  Mustafa, whose father accused security forces of killing for  refusing to take part in the repression.
Fanar Mustafa refused to let the governor of the province  attend the funeral of his son.

“They kill and then they want to march in the funeral of the  murdered,” the father was quoted as saying by a witness at the  funeral.

In Deraa, where the protests first erupted on March 18, a  witness said young men in the old quarter fled to safety in  neighbouring villages to the west as 450 men under the age of 40  were dragged from their homes.

The witness, a trader who ducked Syrian security and crossed  into the Jordanian city of Ramtha ysterday said the authorities  were cleaning Deraa of blood from dozens of youths killed by  machinegun fire.

Security forces drove away two trucks with the bodies of 68  civilians killed since Assad sent tanks into Deraa on Monday.

“Bullets are their response to the people’s revolt. The  security forces who came to Deraa told us ‘Go buy bread from a  bakery called Freedom. Let’s see if it feeds you’,” said a  prominent lawyer in Deraa who declined to be identified further.

Foreign media are banned from Syria.