Assad names new Syrian prime minister as protesters promise to continue

As arrests continue, Syrian state television claimed that 'some of the demonstrators had daubed their clothes with red dye to make foreign reporters believe that they had been injured'.

The Syrian president, Bashar al Assad, appointed his former agriculture minister, Adel Safar, as the country's prime minister yesterday and asked him to form a government, as thousands joined the funeral procession for protesters killed in Douma.

Mobile phone and internet networks failed for several hours yesterday "due to an overload", according to a customer representative, a day after authorities carried out a wave of arrests in pcities that had seen anti-government demonstrations.

Mr Assad asked Mr Safar to form a new government, the state-run news agency Sana reported, having sacked his entire cabinet in a bid to quell pro-democracy protests.

Meanwhile, Douma, a suburb north of Damascus still reeling from a fatal clampdown by security forces against pro-reform demonstrators, observed a group funeral with thousands of sympathisers streaming in from neighbouring towns.

"People are very sad," a resident said as the town buried eight people killed in a clampdown by security forces on Friday. "They want to make it up to the families so they are promising more protests."

On Friday, thousands of Syrians marched across the country after midday prayers, calling for reforms, disappointed by a presidential speech which failed to lift a state of emergency in place since 1963.

Eight human rights groups said 46 people were arrested in raids on the southern town of Daraa, one of the main centres of more than two weeks of demonstrations, as well as Douma, north of Damascus, and the industrial city of Homs.

In a joint statement, the rights groups said: "We condemn this extremely violent and unjustified way the Syrian security services dealt with peaceful rallies in Douma where police used excessive force against demonstrators,".

The rights groups reported that four people died and dozens were wounded in the clampdown. A human rights activist reported eight dead.

A witness said security forces used live ammunition to disperse stone-throwing protesters after noon prayers.

The authorities denied the security forces were responsible for the deaths, blaming them on an "armed group" which opened fire from rooftops on both demonstrators and police.

They acknowledged an unspecified number of deaths and said dozens were wounded, some of them policemen.

State television charged that "some of the demonstrators had daubed their clothes with red dye to make foreign reporters believe that they had been injured".

Some 200 people demonstrated outside the courthouse in Daraa, a town near the Jordan border, where security forces arrested eight people between a morning raid and a round-up after the protests.

Security forces carried out a series of raids in the area, another activist said, adding that an architect, Khaled al Hassan, a lawyer, Hassan al Aswad, and a teacher, Issam Mahameed, were among those detained.

Yusef Abu Rumiyeh, a member of parliament for Daraa, denounced security forces for opening fire on his constituents "without pity" and criticised President Assad for not offering his condolences.

The security forces "opened fire on the citizens of Daraa, killing and injuring them and preventing the wounded from getting to hospital", said Mr Rumiyeh, in a video uploaded on YouTube.

"The people of Hauran were waiting for President Assad to visit to offer his condolences. Had he done so, nothing that happened subsequently would have taken place."

In Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented 17 arrests, while authorities accused another "armed group" of firing on demonstrators in the industrial city and killing "one girl".

The rights group demanded the release of all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners, and called for measures to ensure the safety of peaceful protests.