Syrian forces kill 6 in mosque attack: residents

[cali]

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

DAMASCUS | Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:56am EDT

On Tuesday, Vice President Farouq al-Shara said Assad was committed to "continue the path of reform and modernization in Syria," Lebanon's al-Manar television reported.

A main demand of the protesters is an end to what they term repression by the secret police, headed in Deraa province by a cousin of Assad.

Authorities arrested a leading campaigner who had supported the protesters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said Loay Hussein, a political prisoner from 1984 to 1991, was taken from his home near Damascus.

Syria has been under emergency law since the Baath Party took power in a 1963, banning any opposition and ushering in decades of economic retreat characterized by nationalization.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/23/us-syria-gunfire-idUSTRE72M04T20110323?pageNumber=2