Syria imposes total ban on demonstrations

Destroyed car with an anti Syrian government slogan Syria on Tuesday imposed a total ban on all demonstrations after warning of a crackdown on an "armed revolt" by Islamist radicals and security forces fired on protesters in the city of Homs , killing at least four.
Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar told people "to refrain from taking part in all marches, demonstrations or sit-ins under any banner whatsoever," state news agency SANA reported.
He warned that if demonstrations were held, "the laws in force in Syria will be applied in the interest of the safety of the people and the stability of the country."
Shaar was understood to be alluding to the emergency law in place since 1963. Its repeal has been a central demand of reformists demonstrating since March 15, and President Bashar al-Assad promised at the weekend to rescind it within a week.
The law restricts civil liberties, imposes restrictions on public gatherings, freedom of movement and allows the "arrest of anyone suspected of posing a threat to security."
When the protests first began, the authorities relaxed its enforcement to permit peaceful gatherings, but Shaar's announcement would appear to close that loophole.
The announcement came hours after the authorities vowed to suppress what they called an "armed revolt" in the country by Salafists, Muslims who espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices common in the early days of the faith.Syrian security forces Tuesday fired on a mass protest of thousands in the city of Homs demanding the fall of the regime, hours after the authorities vowed to suppress an "armed revolt" in the country.
Three army officers and three children were killed by "armed criminal gangs" around the city, Syrian authorities announced.Syrian security forces opened fire on a massive sit-in demonstration in the central city of Homs overnight, sending thousands of protesters scattering, rights activists said Tuesday. "The sit-in was dispersed with force.
There was heavy gunfire," an activist reached by telephone in Damascus told AFP, without being able to give details of possible casualties.
Other Syrian activists living in exile confirmed the reports but said they had not been able to get further details due to telephone communications being cut in Homs.
Activists had said more than 20,000 demonstrators on Monday occupied the main square of Homs, some erecting tents, a day after 11 people were killed by security forces in the industrial city and a nearby town during a day of massive nationwide protest.
Inspired by popular uprisings which toppled hardline rulers in Tunisia and Egypt, the protesters had vowed not to leave Al-Saa Square in the centre of Homs until the regime of President Bashar al-Assad fell.
They dismissed as insufficient a weekend pledge by Assad that he would lift nearly five decades of draconian emergency law and demanded the release of all political prisoners and an end to arbitrary arrests.
The interior ministry issued a warning late Monday that it would suppress an "armed revolt" undermining security in the country.
"The latest incidents have shown that... armed Salafist groups, particularly in the cities of Homs and Banias, have openly called for armed revolt," said a ministry statement carried by the official SANA news agency.
It accused such groups of killing soldiers, policemen and civilians, and of attacking public and private property, and warned that "their terrorist activities will not be tolerated."