(MENAFN - Jordan Times) Around 150 Syrians defied the frigid weather on Friday to gather outside the Syrian embassy in support of demonstrators and military deserters back home.
During the protest, which begun at 1:00pm, anti-regime protesters held up the resistance flag and chanted slogans denouncing the increasing number of killings.
Syrian government forces clashed with anti-regime army defectors across the country on Saturday, as the Arab League chief and Qatar's prime minister were set to depart for New York to seek UN support for the latest Arab plan to end Syria's crisis, the Associated Press reported.
At least nine were reported killed in the clashes and other violence, bringing the death toll for the last three days to over 80 and adding urgency to attempts by Arab and Western countries to draft a political settlement to end 10 months of bloodshed.
Zakria Sheikh, one of the protesters, said the time has come for all dictatorships to fall, including the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
He asserted that the Arab League monitoring mission has only allowed the regime to buy time to kill more people.
"Since the beginning of the Arab League initiative, the number of killings increased significantly," Sheikh told The Jordan Times during the protest.
He urged the Arab League and international community to impose strict sanctions on the regime to stop the bloodshed in Syria.
Mohammad Shami said he joined Friday's protest to support the Free Syrian Army, a group of military deserters that has taken up arms against the regime.
"They are the only ones who can defeat the cruel regime and bring about justice," Shami declared.
Mohammad Salman, who was imprisoned in Syria in November, demanded that all Syrians take to the streets and support the protesters.
"People are scared that if they go out to protest against the regime, they will be imprisoned, tortured or killed. If we want to gain our freedom, all Syrians must protest and sacrifice for the sake of the new Syria," he told The Jordan Times while waving the resistance flag.
Salman expressed hope that the instability would come to an end soon.
"Syrians are facing abject conditions back home. Refugees also have a hard time everywhere. They go out begging for money and can't get jobs to pay rent and meet their families' needs," he said.
