AMMAN: Militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 10 people on Friday in Syria's main commercial and industrial hub of Aleppo after pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the city and broke months of quiet, activists said.

The killings, the deadliest in the city during the 10-month uprising against 41 years of Assad family rule, occurred in the tribal Marjeh neighborhood after security forces fired at a rally demanding Assad's removal, they said.

Some activists said the 10 killed were all demonstrators s while others said most were killed in clashes that followed the shooting on the protest.

There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, which restricts media access in the country.

The authorities had recruited thousands of militiamen, known as "shabbiha" from the Aleppo area and deployed them in the streets at the beginning of the uprising last March to prevent any demonstrations, activists said.

One activist named Omar said by phone from Aleppo that dozens of secret policemen had deployed on the main road leading to Marjeh.

Several protesters where also wounded in a shooting on a demonstration in Fardos neighborhood. Other demonstrations broke out in Seif al-Dawla, Mashhad, Ashrafiah and Maysar neighborhoods, the activists said.

Aleppo, Syria's second city situated near the border with Turkey, has stayed mostly on the sidelines in the uprising.

Its government-appointed clerics and influential Sunni Muslim merchant class have maintained ties with Assad, who is from Syria's minority Alwaite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, had used a carrot-and-stick approach to placate Sunni merchants, who have has seen their status undermined by the rise of a young group of businessmen related to or connected with Bashar since he inherited power in 2000.