Syrian students in first protests in Aleppo

Some 500 Syrian students tooks to the streets on Wednesday in the second-largest city of Aleppo for the first time since a wave of pro-reform protests broke out in mid-March. A smaller protest also took place at the law faculty of Damascus university. Both protests were broken up by police, 

Reuters

Security forces and students clashed at the demonstration on the campus of Aleppo's faculty of literature and police arrested at least four students, said Radif Mustafa, the president of the Kurdish Committee for Human Rights.

The protestors also expressed solidarity with the victims of Daraa and Banias flashpoint protest towns in southern and northern Syria respectively.

In Damascus some 50 students staged a protest at the law faculty calling for greater freedoms two days after a sit-in at the science faculty.

And thousands of women staged a sit-in on a main highway linking the towns of Tartus and Banias in the northeastern of the country to demand the release of hundreds of people arrested in protest towns in the region.
Witnesses say Syrian security forces locked the coastal town of Banias, 280 kilometres north of Damascus, and raked Baida with gunfire on Tuesday.

Residents have also complained of bread shortages and said shops and petrol stations were closed. The army has kept a stranglehold on Banias since Sunday, when security forces opened fire on residents, particularly those in mosques, killing four people and wounding 17,

Protests for reforms broke out in Syria on 15 March and have gripped many cities and towns across the country.