The clashes continue in Dara’a. By some reports, the six victims were taking refuge in a mosque. The government claims they were hoarding weapons therein:
But Syrian state television described a very different scene, showing guns, grenades and ammunition that it said had been taken from inside the Omari mosque. The television report acknowledged four dead, but said they had been killed when “an armed gang” attacked an ambulance, The Associated Press reported.
Why the accounts of violence and of the number killed differed was not immediately known.
Despite emergency laws that have banned public gatherings for nearly 50 years protests have grown over the last week in several cities around Syria. The largest have been in Dara’a, with thousands taking to the streets on Friday and again on Sunday, when protesters burned government buildings and clashed with the police. Several people were reported to have died.
This video purports to show some of the attacks: