At Least Five Killed in Syria Funeral Processions

At least five people were killed Saturday in Syrian funeral processions, including three shot dead by snipers as they marched to bury their dead in a local cemetery, witnesses said.

Snipers opened fire from roof-tops as a funeral procession made its way to a cemetery, killing at least three mourners and wounding one, a witness and a human rights activist in the Damascus suburb of Douma told Agence France Presse by telephone.

Tens of thousands of mourners marched in the procession, setting off from a mosque in the northern suburb to the cemetery, they said.

Two other mourners were killed in southern Syria as they joined funeral corteges headed for the town of Ezreh to bury scores of people killed Friday by security forces, a rights activist said.

"The security forces opened fire with live rounds at people who were heading from the Daraa region toward Ezreh to take part in the funerals," the activist said from the southern city of Daraa.

He identified them as Yasser Nseirat and Jamal Qanbar, while adding that several other people were wounded.

More than 80 people were killed when Syrian security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at massive protests nationwide a day after President Bashar al-Assad ended nearly five decades of emergency rule, activists and rights groups have said.