<p>The bloodshed came as President Bashar Assad’s regime sought to counter a 3-month-old pro-democracy uprising with mass demonstrations.<br /><br />The Local Coordinating Committees, which track the Syrian protest movement, said a 13-year-old boy was killed when security forces opened fire on antigovernment protesters in a main square in the central city of Hama.<br /><br />Three other people were killed in Homs, central Syria, and three in the Mayadin district in the eastern city of Deir el Zour during pro and anti-regime demonstrations. The two sides have clashed in the past, but Tuesday's bloodshed appeared to be the worst such violence.<br /><br />“We are seeing an escalation by authorities today,” said Omar Idilbi, spokesman for the committees. “They are sending pro-government thugs along with security forces to attack protesters.”<br /><br />Tens of thousands of people waving flags and pictures of Assad converged on squares in several major cities on Tuesday, a day after he offered a vague plan for political reform in a speech that was rejected by opposition supporters, who took to the streets shouting, “Liar!” He had shown no sign of readiness to end his family’s long political domination in Syria, a key opposition demand.<br /><br />An eyewitness in Homs said a pro-Assad protest with some 10,000 participants “descended” on the city on Tuesday. “Nobody knows them, they are strangers to the city, they were asking for directions.” Anti-government demonstrators then emerged in Homs neighbourhoods, gunfire broke out, and several people were killed.</p>
<p>The bloodshed came as President Bashar Assad’s regime sought to counter a 3-month-old pro-democracy uprising with mass demonstrations.<br /><br />The Local Coordinating Committees, which track the Syrian protest movement, said a 13-year-old boy was killed when security forces opened fire on antigovernment protesters in a main square in the central city of Hama.<br /><br />Three other people were killed in Homs, central Syria, and three in the Mayadin district in the eastern city of Deir el Zour during pro and anti-regime demonstrations. The two sides have clashed in the past, but Tuesday's bloodshed appeared to be the worst such violence.<br /><br />“We are seeing an escalation by authorities today,” said Omar Idilbi, spokesman for the committees. “They are sending pro-government thugs along with security forces to attack protesters.”<br /><br />Tens of thousands of people waving flags and pictures of Assad converged on squares in several major cities on Tuesday, a day after he offered a vague plan for political reform in a speech that was rejected by opposition supporters, who took to the streets shouting, “Liar!” He had shown no sign of readiness to end his family’s long political domination in Syria, a key opposition demand.<br /><br />An eyewitness in Homs said a pro-Assad protest with some 10,000 participants “descended” on the city on Tuesday. “Nobody knows them, they are strangers to the city, they were asking for directions.” Anti-government demonstrators then emerged in Homs neighbourhoods, gunfire broke out, and several people were killed.</p>