One person killed at anti-government protest in Syria’s Sweida province
Al Jazeera
The 52-year-old becomes the first person to be killed by pro-government forces since the protests began in August.
At least one person has died of gunshot wounds sustained in an anti-government protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the southern province of Sweida, according to local news outlets and monitoring groups.
Suwayda24, a local news website run by citizen journalists, reported on Wednesday that a 52-year-old man succumbed to his wounds after security forces guarding a government building shot at nearby protesters.
The local news outlet added that the spiritual head of the Druze sect, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, met with protesters and said the man was a “martyr”.
A local media source and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) confirmed the fatality.
SOHR said dozens of people were chanting anti-government slogans in front of a recently reopened state office building that deals with citizen affairs, such as outstanding military service.
