May 4, 2012 -- Updated 0012 GMT (0812 HKT)
Anti-regime graffiti sprayed on the walls of Aleppo University is shown in this photo from Monday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: At least 32 killed Thursday, opposition says
- The number of monitors increases to 50, state media says
- The regime is shifting its focus to students, the LCC says
- Students in Beirut hold a protest in support of the Aleppo students
Are you there? Send us your images or video. Also, read this report in Arabic.
(CNN) -- Syrian security forces unleashed a deadly
push on a prominent university to clamp down Thursday on student
dissent, the opposition said.
Violence flared at Aleppo
University, a sprawling institution in the country's largest city. It
is one of several schools across the country where demonstrators have
turned out in recent days to protest government policies.
Seven people, including
six students, were killed Thursday in the university city area, the
opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. They were among a
total of 32 Syrians killed nationwide by security forces, the LCC said.
Another opposition group,
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 28 people were
wounded and about 200 students were arrested.
Soldiers also fired at
the hospital where the wounded were taken, leading to more casualties,
said Mohammad Hareitan, 25, a student at the university. It was unclear
how many more people were wounded in that attack.
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The campus website said the school will be closed until final exams start on May 13 "due to the current situation."
The unrest came as the
United Nations continued to try to impose a cease-fire in Syria and
organize an observation force to monitor adherence by the regime and the
opposition.
Amateur videos posted on
the Internet show demonstrators and burned campus rooms at Aleppo
University. Student demonstrators also turned out at Deir Ezzor
University, the Daraa branch of Damascus University and other towns.
Rafif Jouejati, LCC spokeswoman, said the ferment is a sign that the regime is turning its focus to campus dissenters.
"They have pretty well
hammered farmers and villagers. They have targeted many of the
professionals," she said of the regime. "They are just shifting their
attention."
Jouejati said students
have been staging protests since the uprising began in March 2011 but
now "more and more university students are coming out as the barrier of
fear is eliminated."
The regime, she said,
typically has reacted to student demonstrators by surrounding the campus
where they have been protesting, arresting a few students and beating
them up, she said. Now, they are "stepping up the brutality" by firing
tear gas and live ammunition, she said. At Aleppo, one person died after
security tossed him from a window, Jouejati said.
"This has been building
up," Jouejati said. "For many of these students, it is impossible to be
educated and know what's happening in your country and not stand up and
speak."
She said the students taking part in the protests are from all fields of study.
"It's not just the
literature people. It's the engineering folks. It's the law students.
They are coming out and they are demanding freedom."
She said security forces
were targeting anything that might be interpreted as dissent, such as
students sitting silently on the ground. The phrase "Stop the killing!"
assigns no blame, but it too has been targeted, she said.
Outrage over the crackdown at Aleppo University emerged in Lebanon.
The Syrian Revolution
2011 page on Facebook is reporting that students at the American
University of Beirut were holding a demonstration in solidarity with the
students in Syria.
"I stand with the students at the University of Aleppo and its martyrs," a protest flier said.
CNN cannot independently
verify reports of violence and deaths within Syria because the
government has restricted access by most of the international media.
The reported attacks
come despite the presence of the U.N. observers, who have reported cases
of cease-fire violations from the government and the opposition.
The cease-fire went into
effect April 12 and is part of a six-point peace plan negotiated by
U.N. and Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan.
Annan's plan includes
allowing humanitarian groups access to the population, releasing
detainees, starting a political dialogue and withdrawing troops from
city centers -- a mandate the government has not met, according to the
United Nations.
The U.N. observer mission is tasked to monitor the cease-fire and the peace plan.
Maj. Gen. Robert Mood,
head of the mission, said 50 observers were in the country, "deployed in
the provinces of Damascus, Homs, Aleppo, Hama, Idleb and Daraa," the
state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said.
A U.N. peacekeeping
official in New York said that as of noon ET Thursday, 33 military
observers and 27 international civilian staff were in Syria.
A total of 300 are expected to be in the country by the end of the month.
A U.N. official said this week said both sides have violated the cease-fire.
Though the United States
seeks an end to all violence, most of the attacks have been by the
government forces, said Mark Toner, the U.S. State Department spokesman.
"So far, the Syrian
regime has taken, really, almost no steps toward fulfilling the core
commitments of the Annan proposal," he said.
Syria's protests started
peacefully in March last year, but a government crackdown spawned
violence that has left thousands dead and prompted some military
defectors to take up arms against the regime forces. The government has
consistently blamed the violence on "armed terrorists."
The United Nations
estimates that at least 9,000 people have died in the conflict while
opposition groups put the death toll at more than 11,000.
President Bashar al-Assad's family has ruled Syria for 42 years.
CNN's Richard Roth, Amir Ahmed and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report.
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