75 Protesters Dead; Syria Fears Worse Tomorrow

Violence could escalate after so many funerals
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2011 6:09 PM CDT
Syria Protests: About 75 Protesters Killed by Government Troops
A Syrian soldier behind sandbags under a traffic light in the central city of Homs, Syria, Friday,.   (AP Photo)

Most wire accounts are putting the day's death toll among protesters in Syria at about 75, making it what al-Jazeera calls the"deadliest day" yet in the nation's unrest. President Obama condemned the "outrageous use of violence" by the government of Bashar al-Assad, notes the BBC, and the AP warns that it could be even worse tomorrow—precisely because of all those funerals.

The violence came a day after Assad formally lifted emergency law, a move that did little to appease protesters and followed the government's usual concession-followed-by-crackdown pattern, notes the New York Times. While today's protests were unprecedented, their momentum "seemed to fall short of the popular upheaval that revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia represented," writes the Times' Anthony Shadid. Organizers promised they were just getting started. Click to see videos of the protests at Huffington Post, but be warned that the content is rough. (More Syria protests stories.)

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