Torture claims as street unrest spreads across the Middle East

Tens of thousands of people chanting “Freedom!” held protests in several Syrian cities demanding greater reforms than the limited concessions offered by President Bashar Assad.

The action came as a leading international rights group claimed Syrian security and intelligence agencies had detained and tortured hundreds of protesters since anti-regime rallies engulfed the country last month.

Meanwhile in Yemen protesters turned out in huge crowds across the country to demand the president step down immediately while his supporters staged a rally in the capital, Sanaa.

In Jordan dozens of people have been injured in clashes between hundreds of Islamic hard-liners and supporters of the king outside the capital Amman.

About 350 extremist Salafi Muslims confronted a slightly smaller group of the king’s supporters in the town of Zarqa.

The largest protests were on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and in the southern city of Daraa, which has become the centre of the protest movement.

Witnesses said there were up to 50,000 people outside the capital and 10,000 in Daraa.

Protesters were shouting for an end to the decades-old emergency laws, which allow the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge. Lifting the state of emergency has been a key demand.

The month-long protest movement in Syria has steadily gathered momentum as tens of thousands of people demand sweeping reforms in Mr Assad’s authoritarian regime.

More than 200 people have been killed during the government crackdown on protesters, according to Syria’s main pro-democracy group.

Human Rights Watch issued a report yesterday saying Syrian security and intelligence agencies had detained and tortured hundreds of protesters during a month of demonstrations.

“There can be no real reforms in Syria while security forces abuse people with impunity,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“President Assad needs to rein in his security services and hold them to account for arbitrary arrests and torture.”

Syria’s government and its state-run news media have sought to cast the unrest as a foreign conspiracy perpetrated by armed gangs targeting security forces and civilians.

Mr Assad has tried to calm the protests with promises of reform, such as forming committees to look into replacing the emergency laws and freeing detainees.

In Jordan the demonstrations turned violent when a supporter of the king came under attack. Witnesses saw people throwing stones and being beaten with batons.

Protests in Jordan have been smaller than in other Arab nations and have sought reform, not the removal of King Abdullah.

In Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh told tens of thousands gathered near his presidential office that their huge number gives him legitimacy and is a “rejection of chaos”.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands held an anti-regime protest outside Sanaa University after Friday prayers.

Yemen has been wracked by protests over lack of freedom and extreme poverty since mid-February.

More than 120 people have been killed in the uprising.