Syria troops kill 22 in Hama crackdown

Syrian troops killed at least 22 people in a crackdown they launched in the flashpoint central city of Hama, a human rights group said Wednesday.

"At least 22 people were killed in Hama and more than 80 wounded, some of them seriously," Ammar Qurabi of the National Organisation for Human Rights said.

"The wounded are being treated in two hospitals in Hama," he said in a statement, adding that troops had entered the Al-Hurani hospital.

"A large number of Hama residents have fled either to the nearby town of Al-Salamiya or twoards Damascus," Qurabi said.

The US State Department on Tuesday urged the Syrian regime to withdraw its forces from Hama, a city of 800,000 people that saw a massive anti-government demonstration by as many as half a million people last Friday.

"We urge the government of Syria to immediately halt its intimidation and arrest campaign, to pull its security forces back from Hama and other cities, and to allow Syrians to express their opinions freely so that a genuine transition to democracy can take place," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

Hama governor sacked: Syrian state TV

Scene from Friday's huge protest rally in Hama.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has removed the governor of Hama, one of the provinces at the heart of the ongoing protests, according to state television.

The sacking of Ahmad Khaled Abdel Aziz was announced on Saturday, a day after more than 400,000 people reportedly turned out in Hama city demanding the ouster of Assad and his government.

People filled the square around the central Clock Tower in what activists said was the biggest demonstration since the uprising began in March.

"Here we are, the germs of Syria," a local activist said, referring to Assad's speech in which he characterised the protesters as "germs" that Syria must inoculate itself against. "But we are big germs in huge numbers."

He said there was no visible security presence in Hama, only checkpoints at the entrances. "There's not even traffic police," he told Al Jazeera.

The opposition has deep roots in Hama, a city of 700,000. In 1982, under the rule of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, the army stormed the city to crush a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood, leaving about 20,000 people dead.

Syrian forces killed 28 civilians on Friday, a day of massive anti-regime rallies, the AFP reported.
Most of Friday's victims were killed in the Idlib province, where all week troops backed by tanks and armoured personnel carriers have swept through villages to crush dissent against Assad's government.
"Sixteen people were killed" in Idlib on Friday, Ammar Qorabi, the head of the National Organisation for Human Rights, told AFP on Saturday.

Another 10 people were killed when security forces opened fire to disperse protests in several cities, including eight in the central protest hub of Homs and two in the Damascus neighbourhood of Qadam.
More than 1,360 civilians have been killed in the government's crackdown against pro-democracy protests since mid-March, according to human rights groups.