Anti-regime protests break out across Syria Activists said regime troops deployed heavily in several regions to prevent the protests, which have become a weekly event since the uprising broke out in March 2011. In the northern city of Aleppo, regime forces fired at demonstrators in the Salaheddin neighbourhood, said the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists. In Damascus province, regime forces carried out a campaign of arbitrary arrests after a morning protest, according to the LCC. Regular and paramilitary regime forces in Deir Ezzor were "deployed heavily" to prevent protests from breaking out, the activist network said. In Idlib, a flashpoint of the 14-month revolt, "Syrian regime forces are deploying heavily near the mosques," the Britain-based Observatory said. From the start of the uprising, demonstrations demanding the fall of the regime have been held every Friday across Syria. They regularly begin in the early afternoon, as soon as weekly prayers are over. After Assad's regime responded to protesters with a fierce military crackdown, what began as a peaceful uprising has gradually degenerated into an armed conflict. More than 12,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising began, according to the Observatory.