"Syrian security forces in the southern town of Daraa launched a harsh crackdown on protesters calling for political freedoms, killing at least five people and marking the gravest unrest in years in one of the most repressive states in the Mideast, according to accounts from activists and social media.
I'm never for people being killed (exempting war criminals and lying looters who have been duly convicted and sentenced).
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"Syrian police sealed off a southern city yesterday, a day after security forces killed at least five protesters there in the first sign that the Arab world’s pro-democracy push is seeping into one of the region’s most repressive places....
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"Police fired live ammunition and tear gas yesterday at thousands of Syrians protesting in a tense southern city for a third consecutive day, killing one person and signaling that unrest in yet another Arab country is taking root, activists said.
Against a state that Israel doesn't like. How interesting.
Enraged protesters set fire to several local government buildings, according to state media and a witness.
The violence in Daraa, a city of about 300,000 near the border with Jordan, was fast becoming a major challenge for President Bashar Assad, who tried to contain the situation by freeing detainees and promising to fire officials responsible for the violence.
The confrontations began Friday when security troops fired at protesters in Daraa and killed five people.
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How is he doing?
"Syrians chanting “No more fear!’’ held a defiant march yesterday after a deadly government crackdown failed to quash three days of mass protests in a southern city — an extraordinary outpouring in a country that is known for brutally suppressing dissent.
Riot police armed with clubs chased the small group away without casualties, but traces of earlier, larger demonstrations were everywhere: burned-out and looted government buildings, a dozen torched vehicles, an office of the ruling Ba’ath party with its windows knocked out. Protesters also burned an office of the telecommunications company Syriatel, which is owned in part by the president’s cousin.
The unrest in the city of Daraa started Friday after security troops fired at protesters, killing five people. Over the next two days, two more people died and authorities sealed the city, allowing people out but not in, as thousands of enraged protesters set fire to government buildings and demonstrated around the city.
Among the victims was Mundhir Masalmi, an 11-year-old who died Monday after suffering tear gas inhalation a day earlier, an activist said.
Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, said yesterday that reports indicate the Syrian government “has used disproportionate force against civilians, and in particular against demonstrators and mourners in Daraa.’’
You mean, the SAME THING WE are doing in Libya (and other places) RIGHT NOW?
The SAME THING we have done in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN?
The SAME THING the U.S. PUPPET DICTATORS IN Yemen and Bahrain are doing?
Oh, right, Syria an enemy.
Human Rights Watch said Syria should “cease use of live fire and other excessive force against protesters.’’
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"Protest spreads to new southern Syrian village" by Bassem Mroue Associated Press / March 22, 2011
DAMASCUS, Syria—Protests spread in southern Syria Tuesday as hundreds of people marched to demand reforms in a previously peaceful village, witnesses and activists said. In a nearby city, troops and protesters faced off outside a mosque where demonstrators have taken shelter.
The government sought to contain the first serious intrusion of the Arab world's political unrest by firing the governor of the southern province of Daraa, where security forces killed seven protesters in the main city of Daraa over the weekend.
The governor's dismissal failed to quell popular anger and the protests reached the village of Nawa, where hundreds of people marched demanding reforms, an activist told The Associated Press.
The activist said troops were trying to reach the mosque in Daraa's historic center where protesters have sought protection. He said protesters placed large rocks in the streets near the al-Omari mosque to block the troops. Protests also spread Monday to the towns of Jasim and Inkhil near Daraa, witnesses said.
Maybe they are protesting for freedom. Maybe they are unwitting tools.
Whatever they are, I do not trust my agenda-pushing war-promoting Zionist newspaper to tell me.
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