Mideast Uprisings

20,000 Syrians Line Streets for Funerals

Local journalist says situation "is out of control."

Demonstrations against the Syrian government are growing larger in Daraa, as unrest that’s swept much of the Arab world hits the country hard. A day after at least 25 people were killed in fighting in the southern agricultural city, an estimated 20,000 people have lined the streets for the funerals. Even as police and soldiers swarm the city, marchers chanted, “God, Syria, Freedom. The blood of martyrs is not spilt in waste!" A Syrian journalist says Daraa, which has seen phone connections and electricity severed, “is out of control.” The protests are said to be the greatest threat to the regime since Hafez al-Assad, father of current president Bashar al-Assad, took power in the 1970s.