Middle East News
Human rights group: Dozens dead in Syrian prison riot (1st Lead)
Jul 5, 2008, 10:57 GMT
Damascus - Dozens of inmates were killed when prison authorities put down a riot staged Saturday by Islamist political prisoners in a military jail near Damascus, a Syrian human rights group quoted an inmate as saying.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said on its website that Islamist prisoners staged a protest on Saturday morning in Sidnaya jail, prompting military police to open fire.
The human rights group cited an inmate as saying scores of prisoners have been killed and others had fled to a roof of the jail.
Shooting by the guards was still going on, the group said.
Witnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone that shooting started as early as 6 am. Buses transported a large number of soldiers to control the situation and smoke could be seen coming out of the prison's windows.
Families of inmates were appealing to President Bashar al-Assad through the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights to intervene immediately, the group said.
The Observatory called on Assad to intervene to stop 'this massacre of the prisoners of Sidnaya Prison and to try those who shot live bullets at prisoners.'
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