Syrian security forces on Sunday raided villages and cities where residents have been on strike and shot dead two, as President Bashar al-Assad replaced the governors of two provinces that have seen sustained protests against his rule.
The official SANA news agency said Assad appointed new governors to rural Damascus, the region around the capital, and the northern province of Idlib, bordering Turkey.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces shot dead two people in the village of Qalaat al-Madeeq in the central province of Hama. Their funeral later in the day turned into an anti-Assad rally, the group added.
The United Nations says 3,000 people have been killed in Assad's crackdown on protests, 187 of them children. Syrian authorities blame armed groups for the violence and say 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed since March.
