TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Several hundred supporters of Hizb Ut-Tahrir and the Sahwa (Awakening) Party held separate demonstrations in Tripoli after Friday prayers to denounce the Syrian government and voice support for Syrian protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

Following an interruption of several weeks, Hizb Ut-Tahrir resumed its demonstrations in support of anti-regime Syrian protesters. Supporters marched after Friday prayers from the Tinal Mosque to the Tal neighborhood in downtown Tripoli, waving banners and carrying placards supporting the seven-month-old uprising.

Addressing the crowd, Ahmad Qasas, the head of the party’s information office, lambasted the Assad regime, urging Syrians to “continue their uprising until victory.”

Denouncing calls for residents in Tripoli to refrain from expressing their support for the Syrian people, Qasas said, “Tripoli is the heart of Damascus. Tripoli is Damascus. Your blood our people in Damascus is our blood and your struggle is our struggle. Your victory is our victory. Your liberation is a source of pride for us. Our fight together, God willing, will be for the liberation of Palestine. The Baath regime in Syria has protected the Jews in the Golan for 40 years. America today is protecting this regime because it fears your revolution.”

Addressing the crowd, the mosque’s imam Sheikh Zakariya Abdul-Razzaq Masri referred to the popular upheavals currently sweeping the Arab world.

“The Arab countries are today witnessing revolutions against their regimes, which have exercised the ugliest methods of repression and oppression against their people. In spite of this, these people have succeeded in toppling their oppressive regimes and gained their freedom,” Masri said.