Syrian opposition calls for civil disobedience

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ISTANBUL: Syrians should wage a campaign of civil disobedience to try to force President Bashar al-Assad from power, an exiled dissident said on Saturday at a meeting in Turkey aimed at forging a united opposition.

The opposition, divided between Islamists and liberals, is holding a "National Salvation Congress" to try to unite behind the goal of ending 41 years of Assad family rule, but is struggling to agree on whether to form a shadow government.

"I'm for anything that unifies the Syrian people and helps our people inside, and unifies our ranks in confronting this illegitimate repressive regime that has usurped power and human rights," opposition figure Wael al Hafez told the meeting in Istanbul, echoing comments made by others.

"We want to raise the intensity of the peaceful confrontation by civil disobedience and to choke the regime economically and paralyse the state with the least damage."

The West has criticised Assad's crackdown on four months of protests demanding political freedoms. On Friday, his troops killed at least 32 civilians, including 23 in the capital Damascus.

Secret police killed one protester and wounded five on Saturday when they opened fire at pro-democracy demonstrators in the eastern border town of Albu Kamal near Iraq's Sunni heartland.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Turkey, said Friday's protests in Syria had been the largest yet, and Assad's repression was "troubling".

"The brutality has to stop," she said in a televised interview with a group of young Turkish people at an Istanbul coffee shop on Saturday.