AMMAN (Reuters) – Hundreds of women from a Syrian town that has witnessed mass arrests of its men marched along Syria’s main coastal highway on Wednesday to demand their release, human rights activists said.
Security forces, including secret police, stormed Baida on Tuesday, going into houses and arresting men aged up to 60, the activists said, after townsfolk joined unprecedented protests challenging the 11-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
The women from Baida were marching on the main highway leading to Turkey chanting slogans to demand the release of some 350 men, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The women of Baida are on the highway. They want their men back,” the organization said, adding that women also marched in support in the nearby Mediterranean city of Banias.
In Syria’s northern city Aleppo, around 150 students marched in a protest demanding political freedoms on the campus of the main university, human rights defenders in contact with students said.
Baath Party irregulars quickly dispersed the students who chanted “We sacrifice our blood and our soul for you Deraa,” in solidarity with the southern city where demonstrations against the Baath Party’s iron rule started three-and a-half weeks ago.
With heavy secret police presence, preachers on the state
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