Syrian protests escalate

In July, Syrian government troops armed with tanks and machine guns suppressed protests in Homs, the country’s third-largest city. On the last weekend, reports claim, at least 100 protesters were killed in Hama.

On July 21-22, more than one million people took to the streets in several other cities, including Damascus, Aleppo, Hama and Dayr az Zawr, to protest President Bashar al-Assad’s increasing violence against unarmed protesters.

Human rights groups estimate that over 1,400 people have been killed and thousands detained since protests began in mid March.