WarSclerotic

In Syria, another round of protests – CNN.com.

CNN) — Security forces in Syria fired on protesters Friday, killing at least one person and wounding many more as demonstrators took the streets after weekly Muslim prayers, activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based activist group, said one person was shot in the head and killed and five others were wounded in the Damascus suburbs.

The forces opened fire and wounded more than two dozen people near a mosque in the western city of Homs, the observatory said.

Anti-government demonstrations have raged in Syria for nearly seven months, and the Bashar al-Assad regime has launched a fierce crackdown on protesters. The death toll has exceeded 3,000, the observatory said. Most of those killed have been civilian protesters and others have been security forces.

Activists stage nationwide protests with a specific theme every Friday after Muslim prayers. Today the protest theme is “National Council represents me,” a reference to a Syrian opposition movement.

Many world powers have been outraged over the government’s crackdown. The European Union and United States have already imposed sanctions against the regime.

But earlier this week, Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution condemning Syrian authorities for their violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.

The two nations argued that even in its watered-down form without economic sanctions, the proposed resolution would have led to military intervention similar to the NATO operation to protect anti-government protesters in Libya.

Some countries are taking their own steps to pressure al-Assad. After the U.N. vote, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government is preparing sanctions on Syria.

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