The Moroccan forces disperse protest by the opposition

RABAT - Moroccan forces used truncheons to disperse a demonstration was on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Kingdom Rabat on Sunday, several injured, said a Reuters journalist on the scene.

Dozens of demonstrators belonging to the anti-Government movement February 20 tried to organize a picnic of protest from what they claim is a secret government detention centre in the region of Temara, where are are Islamists.

The Government denies that it runs secret detention centres. She later obtained permission for the Attorney General and the national Council of human rights to inspect the headquarters of the domestic intelligence service, said of the MAP news agency.

Police hunted riot the demonstrators before the rally could begin, beating some with long rubber truncheons. Police said that no arrests were made.

At an event later in the outskirts of Rabat, security forces have beaten into a coma one of the founders of the movement on 20 February, Osama ElKhlifi, a doctor and militant said. No independent verification of the report was immediately available.

February 20 is related to the reform demonstrations and uprisings this year elsewhere in the Arab world.

"It is the latest in a series of violent interventions by the security forces, which shows that the authorities are no longer tolerate the Group peaceful demonstrations," said Nizar Benmate of the movement.

Spokesman for the head of Government, Khalid Naciri said by the radio station Atlantic soldier who protest Temara was interrupted because he had been prohibited.

He denied there was a secret detention centre, in the area saying that the building of the finger by the demonstrators was a local government administrative office.

DENIAL OF GOVERNMENT

Moroccan officials deny the allegations made by opposition groups and some human rights activists that they run secret detention centres and to say to all detainees are treated in strict accordance with the law.

Human rights activists say Islamic militant political and others have been held and tortured at the building of Temara.

The map did not say when the visit of inspection of Temara would take place. King Mohammed has created the Council of the rights of man in March in protests.

The Agency said about 100 "extremists" blocked a road in the city of the North of Tangier. He reported an incident similar to FEZ where he said that some protesters method knives and flags of al-Qaeda. No there was no independent confirmation of the reports.

Some 50,000 people gathered in the evening for a pro-reform rally in Casablanca, said organizers. Independent sources put the number at about 15,000.

The Union of the national press criticized the authorities for rough treatment of journalists to the protest of Temara. Security forces beat two journalists, two other manhandled and confiscated some equipment, a Reuters witness said.

The demonstrators fire Yemeni security forces. 3 dead

SANA'A, Yemen - Yemeni security opened fire on demonstrators and launched rockets at a building on Monday as they have happened against a protest in the city of Taiz flashpoint in the South of the country. Three people were killed, witnesses and medics said.

The attacks came a day after demonstrators began a sit-in on one of the main streets of the city, and that tensions escalate across the country between Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and demonstrators seeking his eviction.

Security forces opened fire on demonstrators and shot guns in water and tear gas on them at dawn, witnesses said.

Field doctor Sadeq al-Shujah, said three demonstrators were killed and dozens injured, including six people in a State critical.

Security forces also chased demonstrators into side streets and buildings where they took cover. They launched rockets into an office building where they believed that the demonstrators were hidden, said activist Nouh al-Wafi.

The explosion set fire to the building, but there was no case of loss, al-Wafi said.

One protester, Ghazi al-Samai, said people themselves barricaded in the small streets with rocks and garbage cans to push the security forces.

Yemen is shaken by three months of protests demanding the eviction of the Saleh. In position for more than three decades, Saleh has intensified its crackdown on the protests and refused an offer of regional mediation.

More than 140 people were reportedly killed in the Government's crackdown on the protests to intensifies.

The Pact negotiated by the Gulf Cooperation Council - to resign - Saleh appeared close to success a week ago. But the President backed away from her last weekend saying that he would aid sign rather than himself so. The deadlock that threatens to plunge already unstable nation deeper into turmoil.

Also Monday, protesters, Sana'a, the capital rallied in the main square. Some called for a March on the Palace of Saleh, chanting: "without dialogue, walking is the final decision."

Organizers were considering the decision but feared that a small protest can be easily set aside by the heavy security around the Palace.

Some demonstrators came with their residential numbers written in red on the chest, an indication that they were ready to die in protests and wanted to make it easier to have their bodies identified.

Libyan forces destroy fuel tanks Misrata: rebels

TRIPOLI - the Libyan Government forces destroyed four tanks and together several others were set on fire in rebel-held Misrata, a blow to the ability of the city of port to withstand a head of Government, rebel, said Saturday.

The attack on the city from the West came as artillery shells fired by forces loyal to Muammar al-Gaddafi fell in Tunisia in an escalation of fighting near the border with the rebels while trying to put an end to the rule of Gaddafi more of four decades.

Misrata, the last remaining town in the West under rebel control, besieged for more than two months and has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Rebels gave various accounts of bombings but said he struck the fuel used for export and domestic consumption.

"Four (tanks) were totally destroyed and a huge fire broke out which now distributes for the other four. We cannot shut down because we do not have the right tools, "rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan said to Reuters.

"Now the city will face a major problem." Those who were the only sources of fuel for the city. These tanks could have kept the city for three months with enough fuel, "he said by telephone."

Video of the incident, posted on YouTube by Libyan students Misrata showed firefighters turning on a light in a futile attempt to turn off water pipes.

Government forces last month flew on Misrata, at least a reconnaissance helicopter mission according to the rebels.

The NATO coalition aircraft were bombing of military targets of Libyan Government and do enforce a no fly zone by resolution of the United Nations. Western and Arab countries this week agreed to provide rebels with millions of dollars in aid non-military to help keep services and the economy running.

Rebels have long been demanding more weapons formed from the Libyan leader and heavy on the better-armed forces.

The head of the rebel forces in Libya is retracted a statement by a spokesman for rebels that the Italy had agreed to provide weapons to help in their fight to force Qaddafi.

"We have not received weapons, no the Italy, nor any other country," Abdel Fattah Younes said al-Jazeera television. "Perhaps one of the brothers did not to express themselves correctly... We apologize for the Italy for the brothers in the National Council.".

A spokesman for the National Council of transition rebels told a press conference of Benghazi with earlier in the day that weapons would be offered to the insurgents soon.

In Rome, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that no agreement was reached.

Italy submitted by the rebels, formally recognizing the Transitional Council as the legitimate representatives of the country, but it is unlikely that he would go further than the other countries of the anti-Gaddafi coalition.

FIGHTING IN BORDER

Fighting intensified in the region of the mountains of the West of the Libya as Gaddafi loyalists and rebels backed by the NATO bombing has reached impasse on other fronts in the civil war.

Government forces surrounding the Zintan rebels holding fired rockets 300 in the town on Saturday, rebel spokesman Abdulrahman al-Zintani, said. He gave no details of casualties in Zintan, which is largely empty of civilians.

"You can hear the NATO planes, but no there were no air strikes" al-Zintani told Reuters.

The Tunisian city of Dehiba was struck several times by stray shells in recent weeks, and on Saturday Tunisia condemned the bombing "extremely dangerous" and said that he would take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty.

The Libyan Government has denied targeting deliberately Tunisian soil.

"We said this (bombing) was a mistake and we have presented excuses that this took place and asked the military to ensure that it happen again," Minister Libyan Al - Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi told a press conference in Tripoli.

The battle is over the border crossing Dehiba-Wazzin, whose control gives the rebels a road to the outside world in strongholds in the mountains of the Western region. The Gaddafi forces control a plu passage far to the North.

Saturday the Dehiba schools were evacuated and residents to safety that nearly 100 mortars and missiles fell. The Crackle of small arms and large arms fire could be heard about 4 km in the Libya, said a witness for Reuters at the border.

"We are very afraid." The missiles are falling right around us, we know not what to do, "said Tunisian Mohammed Naguez, a resident of Dehiba." "Our children are afraid." The Tunisian authorities have stop this. ?

Most of the inhabitants of Western mountains belong to the Berber ethnic group and are distinguished from other Libyan. They have increased until there is two months and say of cities such as Zintan and Yafran, often bombed by the forces of Gaddafi, are far from food, water and medicine.

The civil war during the rule of Gaddafi has divided the desert-producing state of oil in a dedicated sector West by the Government around the capital, Tripoli, and a region held by rebel forces undisciplined but.

The revolt is the bloodiest yet against the leaders anchored long across the Middle East and the North Africa, which saw the overthrow of the Presidents veteran of the Tunisia and the Egypt.

Child killed while Syrian forces try to stop protests (AP)

Cairo - a Syrian activist said that a 12 year old boy was killed in the Centre of the city of Homs, the security forces have sealed off after massive protests against the regime.

An activist who became evidence of Homs, stated that the child was killed Sunday as firing and shelling erupted in the city. The activist refused to be named for fear of reprisals.

The Syria has banned foreign media and restricted access for reporters in several regions of the country, making it difficult to confirm the evidence independently. President Bashar Al-Assad has used the military and security forces to crush the uprising of seven weeks in the country across the country.

More than 580 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since the start of the revolt, say rights groups.

IT IS AN UPDATE OF BREAKING NEWS. Check back soon for more information. Previous AP story is below.

Cairo (AP) - the Syrian security forces arrested more than 200 people Sunday early - including a 10 year old boy - as President Bashar al-Assad is developing a campaign to crush the seven-week uprising, at the national level of the country, said militants.

Rami Abdul Rahman, Director of the Syrian human rights observatory, said that more than 200 people have been picked up in Banias, a town in key oil industry on the Mediterranean coast where one of the largest protests took place in the night. On Saturday, the troops of tanks and armoured vehicles rolled and sealed off the coast of the city.

A 10-year-old child was among those taken into custody, said Abdul Rahman.

"It seems to be designed to punish his parents," he told The Associated Press, adding that the water, electricity, and almost all forms of communication of the city have been cut.

Another activist obtain reports of witness said that three more were found dead there since Saturday, bringing the balance sheet of two days in Banias to six. The activist refused to be named for security reasons.

Syria uprising was triggered by the arrest of adolescents who scribbled anti-Government graffiti on a wall in the city of the South of Dara in mid-March. Protests inspired by uprisings sweeping the Arab world spread rapidly across the nation of some 23 million people.

More than 580 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since the start of the revolt, say rights groups.

The events of Banias, after the killed security forces 30 people in nationwide protests Friday, came in the wake of a military operation on a large scale in Dara. The headquarters of 11 days, with approximately 50 residents were killed, triggered international outrage and condemnation.

Banias, which is home to one of two of the country's oil refineries and is the main point of Syrian oil export, has a potentially explosive mixture of religious groups and sects. It is predominantly Sunni Muslim, but is also home to many Alawi - the sect of the ruling Assad family and several officials. He also has a large power station.

Syrian officials and the State media have tried to portray Banias as fertile ground for Islamic extremists to justify the Suppression of the regime. The news agency SANA said the army and security forces were pursuing fugitives in Banias and managed to stop a large number of them and confiscate their weapons.

Sunday, SANA said Syrian authorities seized sophisticated weapons and that the army is still hunting down "armed terrorist groups" across the country, including in Banias.

The United States has already imposed sanctions on three senior Syrian officials as well as intelligence of the Syria and revolutionary Agency keeps the Iran on law enforcement. The European Union should impose sanctions on Syrian officials next week, and the United Nations, said Saturday, and he sends a Syria team to investigate the situation.

Similar to that of Dara, operation of Banias where begins the uprising, risks further alienate the Assad regime, which used a brutal military force to crush the revolt without precedent against the dynasty of 40 years of his family.

Details of the deployment of troops in Banias, for weeks the scene of demonstrations demanding a change of regime, were rare as telephone lines and other communications with the region were mainly cut.

Gaddafi forces rebels clash near border

DEHIBA, Tunisia- artillery shells fired by forces loyal to Muammar al-Gaddafi Libya fell in Tunisia Saturday as fighting broke out near the border between Libyan troops and rebels anti-Gaddafi.

Schools were evacuated and residents to safety in the Tunisian border town of Dehiba, who was hit several times by stray shells in recent weeks as rival Libyan fighting for control of a nearby border crossing.

Fighting intensified in the region of the mountains in the West of the Libya as Gaddafi loyalists and rebels, supported by NATO bombing, reached deadlock on other fronts of the war in the third largest producer of oil in Africa.

Descriptions of dust and rock marked where at least four missiles hit the Tunisian side.

The battle is for control of the border Dehiba-Wazzin, which gives the rebels a road to the outside world in strongholds in the region of the Western mountains where they are fighting to put an end to the rule of Gaddafi more of four decades.

The Crackle of small arms could be heard for about 4 km (2.5 miles) in the Libya, where the rebels and loyalists exchanged gunfire, but the border post remained open - most of the cars carrying refugees fleeing fighting.

"We are very afraid." The missiles are falling right around us, we know not what to do, "said Tunisian Mohammed Naguez, a resident of Dehiba." "Our children are afraid." The Tunisian authorities have stop this. ?

Although the rebels Dehiba-Wazzin border point, forces Gaddafi are subject to a lot more to the North.

BERBERS

Most of the people in the mountains of the West belong to the Berber ethnic group and is distinguished from other Libyan.

They have increased up to two months ago and say the towns Zintan and Yafran are shelled repeated forces of Gaddafi, running short of food, water and medicine.

Rebels were assisted by the air strikes of NATO against loyalist heavy weapons, but it was not sufficient to give them a decisive advantage.

Last week, fighting to the Tunisian border crossed Dehiba himself, drawing protests furious in Libya with the Tunisia authorities. Tunisian soldiers put in place a blockade and patrol in the Dehiba Saturday after fighting resumed.

More than 30,000 Libyan refugees crossed the mountains of the West in Tunisia, where many are hosted by local families.

Sympathy for the Libyan rebels tends to be strong in Tunisia, where the eviction of an authoritarian President in January after 23 years in power led uprisings in Libya and in the Arab world.

Western powers are trying to go beyond NATO bombings against troops loyal to Qadhafi to find other ways to help a popular uprising eastern Libya its control, but at a standstill then.

The bombing the bomb and the imposition of a no-fly zone, both intended to protect civilians, had not prevented scores were killed in attacks by Government on the remaining pockets of rebellion in the West of the Libyaincluding the cities under siege from Misrata and Zintan, in the mountains of the West.

Amnesty International said Friday that the attacks indiscriminate on Misrata, including the use of snipers, bombs, cluster munitions and artillery in civilian areas, may constitute war crimes.

Witnesses: Kill Syrian forces 30 demonstrators (AP)

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By ZEINA KARAM and ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Zeina Karam And Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press – 6?mins?ago

BEIRUT – Syrian security forces opened fire Friday on thousands of protesters demanding regime change, killing more than 30 people in a sign that President Bashar Assad is prepared to ride out a wave of rapidly escalating international outrage.

The U.N. said it is sending a team into Syria to investigate and the European Union is expected to place sanctions on Syrian officials next week — both significant blows to Assad, a British-educated, self-styled reformer who has tried to bring Syria back into the global mainstream over his 11 years in power.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. was pressing the Syrian government to cease "violence against innocent citizens who are simply demonstrating and trying to state their aspirations for a more democratic future."

Friday's protests spanned the nation of 23 million, from the capital to the Mediterranean coast and the arid northeast. The bloodshed was the latest spasm in what has become a weekly cycle of mass protests followed by a swift and deadly crackdown.

But pressure was mounting on Assad, who insists the unrest is a foreign conspiracy carried out by "terrorist groups." More than 580 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since the revolt began, rights groups say.

"What it looks like here is a systematic attack on a civilian population, a political decision to shoot to kill unarmed demonstrators and that could very well be a crime against humanity," Human Rights Watch counsel Reed Brody told AP Television News.

Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is determined to crush the revolt that has now become the gravest challenge to his family's 40-year dynasty.

He has tried a combination of brute force, intimidation and promises of reform to crush the unrest, but his attempts have failed so far.

Still, Syria is a highly unpredictable country, in part because of its sizable minority population, the loyalty of the military and the regime's web of allegiances to powerful forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Shiite powerhouse Iran.

Serious and prolonged unrest are likely to hurt the regime's proxy in Lebanon — Hezbollah — and weaken Iran's influence in the Arab world.

Even as protests were raging on Friday, Syria's prime minister announced the formation of a committee to study ways to combat corruption. In the past, the overtures would have been seen as significant concessions. But protesters were largely unmoved, inspired by the uprisings sweeping the Arab world and enraged at the mounting death toll in Syria.

Now, the protesters are seeking the downfall of the regime.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets Friday despite a security chokehold on the most volatile areas along with a stepped-up intimidation campaign.

"The regime has resorted to scare tactics used by Assad's father in the 1980s," said Radwan Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University.

Assad's father, Hafez Assad, kept Syria under rigid control for three decades. His most notorious act was crushing a Sunni uprising in 1982 by shelling the town of Hama, killing 10,000 to 25,000 people, according to Amnesty International estimates. Conflicting figures exist and the Syrian government has made no official estimate.

But for the next two decades, until his death, Hafez Assad ruled uncontested and the massacre was seared into the minds of Syrians.

Though Bashar Assad has not done anything on the scale of the Hama massacre in his 11 years in power, his crackdown has evoked memories of his father's brutal legacy.

The tactics include a policy of "collective punishment" by arresting entire families to pressure their relatives into turning themselves in. The regime also has turned flashpoint areas into security zones, flooded with soldiers, tanks and snipers.

But Ziadeh said the mere fact that people staged protests despite all these measures shows that the regime's strategy is backfiring.

"They may have succeeded in suppressing the protest movement for a while, but in the long run, these tactics will only backfire," he said. "The regime is damaged and it will be very hard for it to stay in power."

Rallies were held in major areas including the capital, Damascus, and its suburbs, Banias on the coast and Qamishli in the northeast.

A prominent human rights activist told The Associated Press that 30 people were killed Friday, all of them protesters.

The toll included 15 people in Homs, six in Hama, five in the seaside city of Latakia and one in Deir El-Zour, the activist said. He asked that his name not be published out of fear for his personal safety.

A resident of Saqba, a suburb of Damascus, said security forces shot and killed a man riding a motorcycle as he approached a checkpoint.

"They fired so many bullets, around seven ... Then they took the body, put it in a van and washed away the blood on the street," the resident said, who also requested anonymity for security reasons.

Footage posted on YouTube showed protesters in Hama frantically trying to resuscitate a man lying on the ground with a bloodied face and shirt, while people shouted "God is great!"

State-run television said an army officer and four policemen were shot dead by a "terrorist group" in Homs. It did not elaborate.

"We were chanting, peaceful, peaceful, and we didn't even throw a stone at the security forces," said a witness in Homs, who said some 10,000 people were in the streets. "But they waited for us to reach the main square and then they opened fire on us."

Gunshots rang out even after the protesters dispersed, said the witness, who like other activists spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

"The bullets are like rain," he said. "Everyone is terrified."

Syrian authorities also detained Riad Seif, a leading opposition figure and former lawmaker who has been an outspoken critic of the regime during the uprising, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Amnesty International said at least a dozen prominent rights and political activists in Syria have been forced into hiding after receiving direct threats of violence and arrests from authorities. They include opposition figures Haytham al-Maleh and Walid al-Bunni and the son and daughter of Kamal Labwani, who is a political prisoner.

In the Damascus suburb of Douma, scene of intense protests over recent weeks, security forces cordoned off the area to prevent anyone from entering or leaving.

A witness near Douma said he saw a train carrying about 15 army tanks heading north Thursday evening toward the central province of Homs.

Another activist in Damascus said hundreds of people marched in the central neighborhood of Midan. In Banias, witnesses said more than 5,000 people carrying olive branches and Syrian flags also were calling for regime change.

"Our morale is high, they cannot stop us no matter what they do and how many people they arrest," he said.

In the southern city of Daraa, where the army announced the end to an 11-day military operation Thursday, residents said troops were still in the streets, causing many to stay from a protest there on Friday.

"There's a tank stationed at each corner in Daraa. There is no way people can hold a protest today," a resident said by telephone. "It means more killing. Daraa is taking a break. We don't want to see more killing or face tank guns."

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Maggie Michael and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Zeina Karam can be reached at http://twitter.com/zkaram

Bassem Mroue can be reached at http://twitter.com/bmroue