...country. Tens of thousands of people took part in demonstrations against...
The
standoff
between the protesters in Syria and the government has
escalate
d to new levels of violence. There were demonstrations in towns and cities throughout the country, with people demanding everything from the release of political prisoners through to the overthrow of the president. Despite the lifting of the state of emergency, the security forces were deployed in large numbers
ahead of
Friday prayers. And when the protests began, in many places they used force.
Video phone images coming out of Syria show many confrontations in which live ammunition was used, sometimes resulting in casualties.
The interesting thing is that I'm not quite sure whether you can hear me, but we seem to be having some technical problems at the moment. We heard most of but not all of a report from Beirut there by Owen Bennett-Jones on the story that human rights groups tell us that more than 70 people were killed in Syria when security forces opened fire on protesters in towns and cities right across the country.
Now the head of the American armed forces, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said that coalition air strikes against Libyan ground troops have reduced their capability by more than 30%. But he said military operations in Libya were moving towards stalemate. One of the leading American
advocate
s of military intervention, Senator John McCain, was in the opposition-held city of Benghazi, from where Peter Biles reports.