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At least 10 killed at Syrian funerals, reports

At least 11 mourners were shot dead in Syria on Saturday as gunmen fired on the funerals of demonstrators killed during Friday’s protests. Two MPs have resigned in protest at the bloodshed.

Reuters/Amateur video via Reuters TV
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Two independent MPs from the city of Daraa, Nasser al-Hariri and Khalil al-Rifai, on Saturday told Al-Jazeera television they were quitting parliament because they could not protect their constituents.

Security forces killed as many as 100 people when they dispersed Friday’s demonstrations with live ammunition and tear gas, rights activists said Saturday.

According to state news agency Sana, eight people were killed on Friday in Ezreh and 20 others wounded "including security forces in an attack by criminal gangs”. Two police officers died in Damascus and the central city of Homs, it said.

Tens of thousands of mourners packed buses and headed for the southern town of Ezreh for the funerals of 18 people killed the previous day, a rights activist told the AFP news agency by telephone.

Another activist later said "12 martyrs were buried in Ezreh" and that two men - Yasser Nseirat and Jamal Qanbar - who were part of the funeral cortege heading for the town were shot dead by security forces.

Other activists spoke of five mourners killed in Ezreh and outside a hospital in Daraa, with the toll expected to rise.

Snipers fired on tens of thousands of mourners in the northern Damascus suburb of Douma, killing at least five people on Saturday, a witness and a human rights activist there told AFP.

Activists also reported at least one person shot dead by security forces in the Barzeh district of Damascus.

Russia, Italy and Greece joined condemnation from Washington, Paris, London, Brussels and UN headquarters in New York.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé on Saturday condemned the “extreme violence” used on Friday and said that those responsible “must answer for their actions”.

Syria and Iran hit back at US President Barack Obama’s accusation that Tehran has advised Assad on putting down the protests.

Obama’s statement was “not based on an objective vision of the reality on the ground”, a Syrian official said.

Iran rejected the charges, insisting that it does not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.

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