DAMASCUS, Syria—Government forces cracked down on demonstrators in Daraa on Wednesday, leaving 15 dead and dozens wounded as President Bashar al-Assad's government tries to prevent the small uprising from turning into a widespread revolt, activists said.
Security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to dispel demonstrators guarding al-Omari mosque, a focal point of the protests which began Friday after the detention of teenagers from the southern Syrian city.
Six people initially died during the attack, which began at 12.30 a.m. Wednesday, witnesses told the activists. The death toll climbed in the morning when bodies were found in the streets and later in the day after residents came under fire when they attempted to return to the mosque after funerals, said Malath Aumran, the spokesman for a group of Syria-based online activists, in an interview. Mr. Aumran uses a pseudonym for fear of government reprisal.
Nadim Houry, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said he reached two people in Daraa by telephone who described the attack on the mosque. Mr. Houry said he heard "the sound of gunfire" in the background during the call.
The Syrian government on Wednesday disputed the activists' version of events. Its official news agency said "an armed gang" attacked an ambulance in Daraa and security forces pursued the shooters. State TV released a video showing guns, AK-47s, hand grenades and other ammunition as well as stashes of cash that security forces allegedly found in the mosque.
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Ahmad Al Siyasaneh, the imam of al-Omari mosque, told Al Arabiya TV the protesters didn't stash weapons in the mosque and there were no armed gangs near it. "The youth have been peaceful," he said.
Mssrs. Houry and Aumran said they were told by witnesses in Daraa that the attacks were unprovoked.
The Daraa uprising poses the first serious threat against Assad and his Baath party in over two decades. Mr. Assad, who assumed the presidency after the death of his father Hafez in 2000, has been able to maintain domestic stability as wars erupted in neighboring Iraq and Lebanon and has strong support from minorities who fear an Islamist state.
Analysts said the Syrian government would continue to use violence against protestors, applying the lessons learned from successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and the quashed ones in Iran and Bahrain.
"They have seen the outcome of being a little too hesitant in Tunisia, where the authorities probably didn't give firm orders to the armed forces on what to do," said Fred Lawson, a professor of government and a Syria expert at Mills College in Oakland, Calif.
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Demonstrators in Daraa, who last week initially began protesting the arrest of a group of students who allegedly sprayed antigovernment graffiti on walls, soon began calling for wider political freedoms. Security forces, which the government said weren't following state orders, tried to quash the uprising, killing at least six people on Friday.
As news of the latest casualties emerged, people from the nearby villages of Inkhil, Jasim, Khirbet Ghazaleh and al-Harrah tried to march on Daraa Wednesday night but security forces opened fire as they approached, an activist told the Associated Press. It wasn't clear if there were more deaths or injuries.
Meanwhile, the government also is clamping down on the few publicly known human rights activists. Mazen Darwish, the head of the Damascus Center for Freedom of Expression, who was briefly detained on March 16, was arrested again on Wednesday, Mr. Aumran said.
The unrest hasn't spread to other cities in Syria despite the efforts of online activist to push people to action. "Syrians generally have a disdain for engaging in activities that could produce instability and chaos," said David Lesch, a professor of Middle East History at Trinity University. "But rather than trying to muddle his way through, Mr. Assad should consider measures of true political reform rather than bits and pieces of co-optation masquerading as reform."
Mr. Assad fired the governor of Deraa province, and the government formed a committee to investigate "the unfortunate events" there, promising to hold to account those found responsible.
The most recent threat to the Assad government was when Rifaat al-Assad, the exiled uncle of the current president, attempted to grab power from his brother Hafez in 1984. Two years earlier, the Syrian government stamped out the Muslim Brotherhood, which had waged a campaign to overthrow the government since the 1970s, killing an estimated 20,000 people in Hama in 1982.
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