ASSAD FIRES PM AS PROTESTERS SEEK ‘FALL OF REGIME’

Bashar Assad, the Syrian dictator, fired his prime minister Thursday amid a spiralling economic crisis and a series of rare protests against his regime.

The dismissal of Imad Khamis, pictured, came as a highly unusual mass protest against Assad continued for its fifth consecutive day in the Druze-majority town of Suweida in southwest Syria.

Dozens marched through the town calling for the “fall of the regime” as well as revolution and justice.

Similar protests were held this week in the southern town of Tafas, in the Daraa region.

“Protesters called for freedom and toppling of the regime as a result of popular anger over the deteriorating economic, social, security and political situation,” one protester in Suweida, Noura al Basha, told Reuters.