24 Killed as Huge Protests Grip Syria

Hundreds of Thousands Rally Across Syria Demanding Assad’s Ouster. 24 Killed by Security Forces as Demonstrators 'Red Card' Dictator

Jason Ditz

Friday protests in Syria get bigger every week. This was true again this week,where hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets nationwide, including reports of as many as 400,000 marching in the city of Hama alone.

Protests in the city of Hama were of a decidedly different attitude than elsewhere in the nation, as Syria pulled its troops out of the city yesterday. The crackdowns did not entirely halt, however, as 24 were reported slain nationwide.

Protesters in some of the cities were photographedraising red cards, a reference to a penalty in soccer which results in immediate ejection from the game. The cards were symbolic of their demands for President Assad to step down and allow free elections.

President for life uses reformed machine guns on demos

The reports of the "largest" protest in Syria yet has come out nearly every week, to the point of cliche. Still, the mass of demonstrations today clearly reflected that the opposition movement is growing all the time, and the Assad regime’s tactics, from promises of reform to wholesale massacres, have had little impact other than increasing the anger.

Brave Muslim Women going on demo