US Calls for an End to Syria Violence
WASHINGTON -- The White House Friday expressed concern over the violence in Syria and called on all sides to stop the unrest, as rights groups said Syrian forces killed more than 70 people during protests.
"We deplore the use of violence," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, adding the United States was monitoring the situation very closely.
"We call on the Syrian government to cease and desist from the use of violence, we call on all sides to cease and desist from the use of violence."
Activists and rights groups said at least 72 people were killed by Syrian forces when they opened fire on demonstrators, seeking to disperse thousands who took to the streets for "Good Friday" protests.
Friday's death toll was the bloodiest in a single day since protests for democratic change -- the first since emergency rule was imposed by the ruling Baath Party when it seized power in 1963 -- erupted in mid-March.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country a day after President Bashar al-Assad scrapped the decades of emergency rule.
But his forces fired live rounds at demonstrators in several towns and cities nationwide, witnesses and activists told AFP by telephone.
"We call on the Syrian government to follow through on its promises and take action toward the kind of concrete reform that they promised," Carney added, talking to reporters aboard the president's Air Force One plane.
The official SANA news agency said security forces intervened using only tear gas and water cannon to "prevent clashes" between protesters and passers-by.
Assad, in power since replacing his father Hafez as president in 2000, issued decrees Thursday scrapping emergency rule, abolishing the state security court and allowing citizens to hold peaceful demonstrations.
But his detractors said the moves were not enough, and the so-called Syrian Local Coordinating Committees of protesters made a raft of demands, urging a halt to the torture, killings and arrests of protesters.