Syria Daily, Feb 22: 96 Killed as Protests Link Assad & “Terrorism”

By Scott Lucas – 23.2.2014  – Syria’s protesters turned the regime’s “terrorism” narrative back on Bashar al-Assad on Friday, linking Damascus to the danger of “extremists”.

The Assad regime has claimed that the priority in Syria is to vanquish insurgent “terrorists”, insisting at last week’s Geneva II peace conference that the issue must be discussed rather than that of a transitional governing authority. – However, demonstrators in Kafranbel, the town in northwest Syria which has become iconic for its protests and posters, used their Friday march to say that the violence and repression of the regime were to blame:

Protests across the country also questioned whether recent truces near Damascus between Syrian forces and insurgents were to be welcomed, although the Kafranbel march expressed sympathy for those who had bowed to regime conditions: “He who is forced is neither a coward nor humiliated.”

Meanwhile, the Local Coordination Committees said 96 people were killed on Friday, including 21 children and 10 women.

Of the deaths, 40 were in Aleppo Province, 23 in Damascus and its suburbs, 16 in Hama Province, and 10 in Idlib Province.