10 die as Syrian security force fires on funeral procession

BEIRUT -- Syrian security forces opened fire on a funeral procession Tuesday, killing up to 10 people in a city that has been besieged for days by some of the most severe violence seen during the country's 4-month-old uprising, activists said.

Dozens of people -- possibly as many as 50 -- have been killed in Homs since Saturday, according to activists, human rights groups and witnesses. Syria has banned independent media coverage, making it difficult to verify accounts from witnesses or Syrian authorities.

"We haven't slept since yesterday," a Homs resident said by telephone, the cracks of heavy machine-gun fire in the background. "I am lying down on the floor as I talk to you. Other people are hiding in bathrooms."

Snipers were positioned on rooftops, keeping a close watch on the deserted streets, he said, asking that has named not be published for fear of reprisals.

The shooting outside the Khaled bin Al-Waleed mosque erupted shortly after noon as families held funeral processions for 10 people killed a day before during a security sweep, said the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group that helps organize and document the protests in Syria.

The mother of a man being buried was among those killed at the funeral procession, said Mohammed Saleh, an activist in Homs.

The LCC confirmed 10 people were killed in the funeral procession shooting, said a spokesman for the group, Omar Idilbi.

The figure could not be independently confirmed.

Damascus-based Abdul-Karim Rihawi, head of the Syrian Human Rights League, also said there were casualties in Homs, as did witnesses. But they did not have an exact figure.

Homs, about 100 miles from Damascus, has been under siege following reports of a wave of sectarian killings on Saturday and Sunday that left 30 people dead.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Saleh confirmed the death toll was 30 and said they have the names of the victims. But other activists said the toll was lower and blamed security forces for the killings.

The discrepancy points to the confusion surrounding the violence in a country that has prevented any independent media coverage. But it also illuminates the fear among some opposition members that reports of sectarian conflict would discredit their movement internationally at a time when the pro-democracy forces are hoping for greater support from the West.

Placing the blame

Human rights groups say more than 1,600 people have been killed in President Bashar Assad's crackdown on a largely peaceful protest movement. But they blame the unrest on gunmen and religious extremists looking to stir up sectarian strife.

After the weekend attacks, opposition figures accused Assad's minority Alawite regime of trying to stir up trouble with the Sunni majority to blunt the growing enthusiasm for the uprising.

The protesters have been careful to portray their movement as free of any sectarian overtones.

Sectarian warfare would be the worst-case scenario in Syria, evoking painful memories of the worst days of the Iraq war. The Syrian regime's supporters have exploited those fears by portraying Assad as the only force that can guarantee law and order.