BEIRUT: School children in a Tripoli neighborhood demonstrated to express their solidarity with Syrian children, the state-run National News Agency reported Monday.

Demonstrators marched in the neighborhood of Qibbeh, chanting slogans in support of children in Hama, Daraa, Homs and other Syrian cities.

One pupil, Abdallah Jazzar, spoke on behalf of Qibbeh’s children, saying that “the children of Tripoli stand by the Syria’s children.”

“Yesterday we met for the first day of school and we felt how you are missing the joy of this day; we are one people and one body,” Jazzar said.

Qibbeh worshippers at Hamza Mosque have been staging almost weekly demonstrations for several months.

Following Friday prayers, the worshippers march to the nearby Ibn Sina square and chant slogans against Syrian President Bashar Assad,

whose regime has launched a brutal crackdown on the pro-democracy uprising, now in its seventh month.