Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

At least seven dead in Syria clashes

RIA Novosti

23:34 24/06/2011 DAMASCUS, June 24 (RIA Novosti) - At least seven people are reported to have died on Friday across Syria during protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

Human rights groups said security forces fired at protestors during demonstrations after Friday prayers in Damascus and elsewhere. But Syrian state TV said unidentified gunmen were responsible for a number of deaths.

At least three protesters were killed in the capital's Barzeh district, eyewitnesses said.

A police officer was killed in the southern city of Qadam, reports also said.

Syrian human rights organizations have estimated that some 1,300 people have been killed and more than 10,000 arrested in Syria since protests demanding the end of President Bashar al-Assad's authoritarian rule broke out in the country in mid-March.