Syria: First Protest In Aleppo As Women Block Coastal Highway

Syrian state television broadcast confessions of a “terrorist cell” it said was provided with money and weapons from third parties to carry out “schemes and acts of sabotage in Syria.” It also showed viewers a variety of weapons seized in the possession of the terrorist cell.

Meanwhile, some 500 students on Wednesday protested at the Faculty of Arts in the University of Aleppo, the second biggest city in Syria. They demanded freedoms and rights.

This was the first protest in this city since the outbreak of a wave of popular protests in Syria about a month ago, according to a human rights activist.

In addition, human rights activists said on Wednesday that hundreds of women in a Syrian held a rally, demanding the release of men detained earlier. The women protested on the coastal highway which links Latakia and Tartus .

At least 350 men were arrested. The women were from al-Bayda town, located ten kilometers south of the city of Banias . According to sources in the Syrian opposition the authorities had released 150 detainees, however, the women refused to end the sit-ins before the release of all detainees.

Activists said that members of the Syrian secret police and soldiers surrounded the town of al-Bayda on Tuesday, raided houses and arrested the men under the age of 60 years.