By AGENCIES, ARABNEWS

AMMAN: Security forces killed at least two people as they moved into central and northwest Syria on Thursday, activists said, urging fresh anti-regime protests under the banner of “death rather than humiliation.”

Hours before, Hama’s attorney general declared on YouTube he had resigned in protest against bloody repression of street demonstrations.

Residents of Hama said security police and state militiamen, known as shabbiha, raided houses overnight in the Al-Sabouniya and Al-Marabet districts, after troops backed by tanks arrested dozens in two other neighborhoods of the city the night before.

“The inhabitants are responding by shouting ‘God is greatest’ from windows and rooftops. Tonight there are more random raids as opposed to what the army did yesterday, which is go into specific houses looking for suspected activists on a list,” Haidar, a local activist, told journalists by phone. The attorney general of Hama said he had resigned because security forces killed 72 jailed protesters and activists at Hama’s central jail on the eve of the military assault on the city on July 31. He said at least another 420 people were killed in the operation and were buried in mass graves in public parks.

“I, Judge , Hama province Attorney-General, announce that I have resigned in protest of the savage regime’s practices against peaceful demonstrators,” Al-Bakkour said in a YouTube video released by activists. An independent lawyer said the person in the video was Al-Bakkour, who also denied reports by state media that he had been kidnapped by armed groups. READ MORE ON ARABNEWS