Muzaffar Salman / AP Photo
It appears as though President Bashar al-Assad's pledge to lift the country's despised emergency laws will not be enough to quell the anti-regime uprising that started a month ago. Anonymous eyewitnesses and activists say gunmen dressed in black opened fire at hundreds of people on Sunday in the Talbiseh district in central Syria, killing at least three people and wounding others. Meanwhile, thousands of protesters gathered in the city of Daraa, the epicenter for demonstrations, to mark Independence Day and encourage the opposition not to submit to the country's leader. Throughout the month-long uprising, more than 200 people have died as security forces cracked down on protests with ammunition, tear gas, and batons. Protesters shouted, "Whoever kills his own people is a traitor," and "The people want to topple the regime." On the same day in Yemen, witnesses and medical personnel claim President Ali Abdullah Saleh's security forces shot at protesters on Sunday as thousands demonstrated in Sanaa's Change Square. Eleven were left with serious gunshot wounds.