Samer al-Khatib

Syrian security forces on Sunday flooded a tense neighbourhood where a mourner was shot dead in the largest anti-regime rally seen in Damascus, activists said, blunting calls for a "day of defiance."

Syrian security forces on Sunday flooded a tense neighbourhood where a mourner was shot dead in the largest anti-regime rally seen in Damascus, activists said, blunting calls for a "day of defiance."

Syrian security forces deployed heavily Sunday in a tense Damascus neighbourhood where a mourner was shot dead in the largest anti-regime rally seen in the capital, blunting calls for a "day of defiance."

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Police and militia patrols fanned out in the Syrian capital's Mezze district on Sunday to prevent more protests like those that have threatened President Bashar al-Assad's grip on Damascus, opposition activists said.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - A leading Chinese newspaper accused Western countries on Monday of stirring civil war in Syria, where police and militia patrols clamped down on a district of the capital to prevent new demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad.