Syrian forces kill 24, protesters tell Assad to go

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AMMAN: Syrian forces killed 24 civilians on Friday, a prominent rights lawyer said, as tens of thousands of people called on President Bashar al-Assad to step down in some of the biggest demonstrations since a three month uprising.

Defying Assad's military crackdown, demonstrators took to the streets again after Friday prayers across the country, from towns near the western Lebanese border to the desert regions near Iraq in the east.

"Bashar get out of our lives," read placards carried by thousands of Kurds who marched in the northeastern city of Amouda, according to a YouTube video taken by resident.

Encouraged by the widening protests, prominent opposition figures plan to convene a 'national salvation' conference in Damascus on July 16 to reach a broad based blueprint for solving Syria's political crisis.

"In light of the military solution chosen by the regime to end the revolution, the conference aims to reach a consensus guided by the popular protest movement for a transitional period and a national salvation government that lays the foundation for a new constitution and free elections," said a statement by the organisers, which was sent to Reuters.

The statement was signed by 50 figures, including Kurdish leader Mishaal al-Tammo, former judge Haitham al-Maleh, Nawaf al-Bashir, a tribal leader from the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, economist Aref Dalila, a fierce critic of the Assad's family's involvement in business and Walid al-Bunni, a physician who played a major role in a movement for democracy crushed by Assad ten years ago known as Damascus Spring.

With an intensifying security campaign that rights campaigners said resulted in arbitrary arrests of over 1,000 people over the last week alone, organisers said the conference would be far more difficult to convene than a meeting of intellectuals allowed by the authorities last week that gave a rare platform to several opposition figures.

Lawyer Razan Zaitouna told Reuters by phone that the 24 dead included seven protesters in the central city of Homs, scene of widening protests against Assad and 14 villagers in the northwestern province of Idlib, where troops backed by tanks and helicopters have been storming villages to subdue dissent.

The assaults concentrated on the northern section of Jabal al-Zawya region, home to 15,000 people, many of whom are trying to flee to Turkey, which already has 10,000 refugees from attacks in Idlib earlier this month.

"Troops have heavily blocked the roads leading out of Jabal al-Zawya and only tens of people have made it to Turkey. He roads are also dangerous because there is random gunfire from helicopters and tanks," a resident of the region said.