DAMASCUS (AFP) — Syria has detained four members of a secular opposition grouping, intensifying a week-old crackdown on dissent that has already drawn US criticism, human rights groups said on Monday.
Security forces in the central city of Hama picked up Fidaa Horani, a 42-year-old gynaecologist who chairs the Damascus Declaration grouping, the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights said.
They transferred her to the capital following her arrest on Sunday, the watchdog added.
On Monday, the authorities detained three more members of the grouping -- the writer Ali Abdullah and doctors Walid Bunni and Mohammed Yaser al-Iti, the president of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, Ammar Qorabi, said.
A total of seven members of the grouping, named after a 2005 declaration calling for radical change, have now been detained since December 9.
Security forces already arrested its secretary, Akram Bunni, brother of a leading jailed dissident, last Tuesday. Two other members -- Jabr al-Shufi and Ahmed Tohmeh -- are also in custody.
A total of 163 supporters of the declaration took part in a protest on December 1, angering the Baath party-dominated regime that has ruled under a state of emergency since 1963.
US President George W. Bush called on Friday for the immediate release of the detained dissidents.
He applauded the formation of the opposition grouping, saying "the brave men and women who formed this council reflect the desires of the majority of Syrian people to live in freedom, democracy, and peace, both at home and alongside their neighbours in the region."
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