BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian forces opened fire at funerals for slain political protesters, a human rights activist said Sunday, leaving two more people dead as Syria tries to subdue weeks of demonstrations against President Bashar Assad.
The two were killed Saturday in al-Kaswa, a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Security forces opened fire when the funerals turned into protests, he said.
Syrian activists say 20 people were killed in Friday demonstrations across Syria, including two children aged 12 and 13.
Most of the Friday deaths occurred in Barzeh and al-Kaswa. Footage posted online by activists showed dozens of people in a Saturday funeral procession for three of the dead in al-Kaswa, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great!" and "Bashar, get out!"
Abdul-Rahman says one person was also killed Saturday in Damascus' Barzeh neighborhood and two were killed in the village of al-Quseir.
The opposition says some 1,400 people have been killed in recent months as the government has cracked down on the movement demanding an end to four decades of autocratic Assad family rule. Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, crossed into neighboring Lebanon late last week fleeing the crackdown.
The new arrivals joined thousands of other Syrians who fled to Lebanon in May and early June.
The military's recent sweep through northwestern Syria, where armed resistance flared in early June, also has sent more than 11,700 refugees fleeing across the border to refugee camps in Turkey.
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