Activists angered by Assad email revelations

Demonstrators again took to the streets despite the presence of a vast number of security personnel who have deployed there in recent days. Photograph: Hazim/Xinhua Press/Corbis

Syrian activists and opposition figures have reacted with outrage to the email cache revealed by the Guardian, saying that they showed President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling circle were blase about the uprising in their country.

The regime's brutal attempts to put down the revolution continued on Thursday on the first anniversary of the uprising, which broke out in Deraa.

Demonstrators again took to the streets of the town now hailed as the birthplace of the revolution, despite the presence of a vast number of security personnel who have deployed there in recent days.

The Guardian's website was also reported to have been blocked in much of Syria on Thursday in an apparent attempt to prevent citizens from reading the Assad emails. Pan-Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya, which has also obtained the leaked emails, reported significant interference with its transmission signal this week.