DARAA: Syrian security forces exchanged gunfire with activists holed up in a mosque in Daraa Wednesday, leaving at least one person wounded, an AFP reporter said.
Meanwhile, a rights activist told AFP security forces had opened fire on mourners attending the funeral of two of five people killed in Daraa early on Wednesday.
An AFP correspondent heard an exchange of fire coming from the direction of the town center, where protesters have camped out in the Omari mosque, which has become the focal point of week-old anti-regime demonstrations.
Another AFP reporter saw a person being brought into hospital with a clear gunshot wound to the head.
Early on Wednesday Syrian security forces fired on anti-regime protesters near the mosque, killing five and wounding scores, rights activists said as the government blamed a "gang" for the violence.
"Security forces fired live bullets and tear gas on the protesters" early Wednesday morning, a rights activist said, adding "They cut off electricity and the firing started."
At least one person was brought into the town hospital on Wednesday afternoon with gunshot wounds to the head, an AFP correspondent said.
Hundreds of people had gathered overnight at the Omari mosque, the focus of rallies in Daraa since Friday, to prevent police from storming it.
Security had been beefed up after they set up tents to camp there, with anti-terrorism squads patrolling Daraa, a 250,000-strong city near the Jordanian border.
All entries to Daraa had been sealed off by a military checkpoint, and vehicles granted access to the town had to pass through two separate intelligence checkpoints manned by armed plainclothes forces.
The streets of Daraa remained tense, with most shops closed and residents indoors.
The official SANA news agency said the first attack early on Wednesday was carried out by an "armed gang," and that it left four people dead including a security force member.
"An armed gang after midnight attacked a medical team in an ambulance at the Omari mosque, killing a doctor, a paramedic and the driver," before police intervened and made some arrests, said the report.
SANA said "these gangs… used children they had kidnapped… as human shields," adding they also "terrified people by squatting in houses" and firing on passers-by.
Authorities in Daraa have said those holed up in the mosque were Salafists opposed to Syria’s ruling regime.
State television showed footage of what it said was a stockpile of weapons inside the mosque including guns, grenades and ammunition.
There was no way to verify the reports, but an AFP correspondent saw a damaged ambulance on a main street of Daraa amid massive security.
"It looks like they are going to clean the streets (of the activists) today," said one visibly shaken witness, a man in his 40s.
France called on Syria to stop using excessive force and condemned the action that lead to the deaths, while urging Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to begin genuine reforms.
"Political reforms must be undertaken without hesitation to answer the aspirations expressed by the Syrian people," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
Syria, which is still under a 1963 emergency law banning demonstrations, has for the past week seen a string of unprecedented protests demanding the end of Assad’s regime.
And while the government of Assad, who succeeded his father in 2000, has promised to probe the Daraa killings, analysts warn the situation is volatile.
Daraa, a town about 100 kilometers south of Damascus and home to large tribal families, has been the focal point of the rallies, the latest in a string of uprisings against long-running autocratic regimes in the Arab world.
Syria has accused foreign parties of stirring up the unrest.
"These parties claim they have received messages and pictures from inside the town that massacres have taken place, to encourage people (to revolt) and terrify them," SANA quoted an official as saying.
In a separate report, the news agency said "more than one million text messages had had been sent to Syrians (encouraging them to) use mosques as a base to cause trouble."
An AFP photographer and videographer in Daraa Wednesday said their equipment had been confiscated, two days after their cameras had also been confiscated on assignment.
The demonstrations have spilled into the nearby towns of Jassem and Noa, where eyewitnesses said more than 2,000 protesters gathered Tuesday for a rally before being quickly dispersed by security forces.
Six people had been killed earlier in a security crackdown on the Daraa demonstrations, including an 11-year-old boy who died Monday after inhaling tear gas the day before.
Syrian authorities on Tuesday also detained writer Louai Hussein, one day after he posted a petition online demanding the right to freedom of expression, London-based rights group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The crackdown has earned harsh rebukes from the European Union, France and the United Nations, among others.
