When the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began the Syrian pro-democracy movement promised to expand their weekly protests to daily ones, a promise delivered and met with violent crackdowns every day since.
But daily violence doesn’t appear to have stemmed the well of enthusiasm for the protest movement, and as Ramadan comes to a close demonstrators took to the streets nationwide to protest against Bashar Assad.
Which of course led to security forces firing into the crowds, killing at least seven people nationwide and punctuating a month which left hundreds of demonstrators dead but the movement no less determined to see Assad ousted.
In addition to those killed in the streets over the past several months of demonstrations, Amnesty International reports that at least 88 people, including 10 children, have died in custody, with arrests for dissent often leading to torture.