500,000 Protesters Flood Syria's Streets, 32 Killed (VIDEO)
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Syria on Friday in a mass anti-government protest that turned deadly.
Activists estimate that 500,000 people turned out in cities across Syria for Friday prayer and to demonstrate against the Assad regime.
At least 32 people have been killed in clashes between government forces and protesters, as reported by Al Jazeera television.
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The protests broke out as Arab League monitors arrived in the country only four days ago for a month-long observer mission. The Arab League monitors are in the country to observe if President Bashar al-Assad is keeping in line with a peace agreement.
Syrian opposition forces called for Friday’s mass protest to display to Arab monitors the extent of Syrian oppression and to show that the anti-Assad movement has not lost momentum in the face of increasing government crackdowns.
“We want to show the Arabs and the world that we are peaceful protesters, not criminals or armed gangs,” a protester in Dara’a told The New York Times.
Many Syrians have expressed skepticism at the Arab League mission, arguing against the mission’s leader, General Mustafa al-Dabi, who has been accused of grave human rights violations in his native Sudan.
Additionally, despite the presence of Arab League monitors in the country, violence has not ceased and civilians remain unprotected.
Nevertheless, mobs of civilians have crowded monitor forces to share their stories.
Assad and his regime claim that they are killing Islamist militants aiming to plunge Syria into chaos, but activists hold that innocent civilians have been made martyrs in their hope for a democratic state.
Around 10 percent of the Syrian population is Christian. Syria does not profess a state religion, nor does it officially favor any religion over others.
Some 200,000 Christians, half of whom are Greek Orthodox, live in the city of Homs. The city of Homs has served as the heart of the revolution against the Assad regime and has been one of the main targets of government forces over the past nine months.
The United Nations has estimated that over 5,000 people have been killed since the unrest in Syria began back in March. Of those, an estimated 80 Christians have been killed.
To watch a video of today's protests please view below.
