Protesters fill Syria’s streets; 14 are killed

The demonstrations, flaring in dozens of places at the same time, further strained the resources of Assad’s security forces and military as they also try to choke off a refugee wave into Turkey.

The centerpiece of the latest protests, the central city of Hama, brings further complications for the government. Security forces moved outside Hama in early June after shootings that left 65 people dead. Now the streets appear fully under the sway of the opposition, with an estimated 300,000 gathering in the central square, activists said.

Crowd estimates and other details cannot be independently verified. The Syrian government has banned most foreign media from the country and has restricted coverage.

But the protest surge appeared to dwarf recent weeks as Assad’s forces tried to wear down the opposition with relentless force. Syrian rights groups say more than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-March, most of them unarmed protesters.

The regime disputes the toll, blaming “armed thugs’’ and foreign conspirators for the unrest that has posed the most serious challenge to the Assad family’s 40-year ruling dynasty in Syria.

In Hama, antigovernment crowds defiantly staked their claim to the city - which carries important symbolism to the opposition. In 1982, forces loyal to Assad’s late father, Hafez Assad, stormed the city to crush an uprising, leaving between 10,000 and 25,000 people dead, rights groups say.

Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso estimated 300,000 people joined the rally in Hama without any sign of security forces, which remained outside the city and appeared unwilling to risk major bloodshed again.

It also could reflect fatigue in Assad’s core troops and the need to concentrate on what officials consider strategic fronts. Assad’s elite forces have waged nearly nonstop crackdowns around the country as new protest hotbeds emerged.

Now they are mobilized in difficult terrain along the Turkish border in efforts to prevent refugees from fleeing across the border. The regime is deeply embarrassed by the exodus and also fears the camps could become opposition enclaves out of the government’s reach.

“Syrian security forces are exhausted,’’ said Osso. “There are demonstrations all over Syria and they cannot cover these areas.’’

In Lithuania, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Assad’s regime to either begin a credible political reform process or “continue to see increasingly organized resistance.’’

“It doesn’t appear that there’s a coherent and consistent message coming from Syria,’’ Clinton told a news conference. “We know what they have to do. They must begin a genuine transition to democracy, and allowing one meeting of the opposition in Damascus is not sufficient action toward achieving that goal.’’

Osso said huge protest crowds moved into the streets after the Muslim noon prayers in places across the country, including the capital Damascus. Some carried red cards like ones used as the “ejected’’ signal by soccer referees.

A video posted on the Local Coordination Committees’ Facebook page showed dozens of people marching outside a mosque in Damascus’ central neighborhood of Midan as they chanted “Bashar out, Syria is free.’’

Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, which track the protests in Syria, said the demonstrations were the largest since the uprising began in mid-March. He did not give a figure but said there were gatherings in 172 different locations with numbers ranging from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands as in Hama.

Activists, including Idilbi and the Local Coordination Committees, said at least 11 people were killed by security forces around the country, including five in the central city of Homs and two in Damascus.

In separate clashes, three people were killed during a military operation seeking to halt the flow of refugees heading across the border to Turkey, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

More than 10,000 Syrians have already taken shelter in refugee camps in Turkey to escape the violence. State-run Syrian TV aired footage of progovernment demonstrators in different parts of the country carrying Syrian flags and posters of Assad. State TV said gunmen opened fire at police officers, killing a police officers and a civilian.

Along Syria’s northern border with Turkey, Syrian forces have been combing through villages and hinterlands trying to quell demonstrations and hunting down soldiers who abandoned their weapons.