Syrian troops fire on protesters, 4 dead

Syrian security forces pounded the city of Hama with tank shelling and opened fire on protesters who streamed into the streets across the country today calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad, killing at least four and wounding more than a dozen.

The fierce, six-day-old siege of Hama, which has killed at least 100 people, did little to intimidate protesters. Anti-Assad marches spread from the capital, Damascus, to the southern province of Daraa and to Deir al-Zour in the east. Other demonstrations were reported in Homs in the center and in Qamishli, near the Turkish border.

Security forces opened fire with live ammunition and tear gas in several cities, activists said. At least four people were killed in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen, said rights activists Mustafa Osso and the Local Coordination Committees, a group that tracks protests. Osso reported at least 10 people wounded in Arbeen.

Activists also said three people were wounded in Homs. In Hama, tanks shelled residential districts around 4 am on Friday, a resident said.

"If people get wounded, it is almost impossible to take them to hospital," the resident said by telephone, asking for anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

He added that the city was also bombed at sunset Thursday as people were breaking their dawn-to-dusk fast, which Muslims observe during the holy month of Ramadan.

Hama, a city of 800,000 with a history of dissent, had fallen largely out of government control since June as residents turned on the regime and blockaded the streets against encroaching tanks.