BEIRUT - Fired up with zeal, activists say they have set up dozens of checkpoints in the Syrian city of Hama, alerting neighborhood groups with cries of “God is great’’ to the approach of feared security forces and throwing up barricades of burning tires and trash bins to block their path.
Hama, the scene of the largest protests yet, has emerged as a potent challenge to President Bashar Assad. In just days, the protests and the government’s uncertain response have underlined the potential scale of dissent in Syria, the government’s lack of a strategy in ending it, and the difficulty Assad faces in dismissing the demonstrations as religiously inspired unrest with foreign support.
Hama is still a far cry from the liberated territory that the most fervent there have declared it. But a government decision last month to withdraw forces has ceded the streets to protesters.
Residents interviewed by telephone said they had begun working collectively in acts as small as cleaning a downtown square and as large as organizing the defense of some neighborhoods.
More critically, the scenes of enormous, peaceful rallies there Friday have served as a persuasive critique of the government’s version of events, which had won over large segments of Syrian society.
I feel like I'm getting hit over the head with a hammer of propaganda every time I open up a newspaper these days.
Throughout the nearly four-month uprising, the government has pointed to the deaths of hundreds of its forces to argue that the unrest is the product of violent Islamist radicals with support from abroad.
And they are right.
Hama was peaceful for weeks, but Monday, security forces returned to its outskirts, carrying out arrests. Those forces killed at least 11 yesterday in yet more raids, activists said. Each foray has run up against opposition wielding what one activist called a medieval arsenal: stones, sand berms, and, in his unconfirmed account, bows and arrows.
Ah, the Palestinian arsenal.
Related: "in March security forces seized a large quantity of weapons hidden in a truck coming from Iraq."
All medieval?
“There’s no easy solution to Hama,’’ Peter Harling, a Damascus-based analyst with the International Crisis Group, said in an interview.
“The regime made significant progress in terms of convincing people in Syria and abroad that there was an armed component to this protest movement and that its security forces were very much focused on that component,’’ he added. “Hardly two weeks later, the regime gets embroiled in the exact opposite, once again undermining its own case.’’
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"Syrian protesters face troops in key city" July 08, 2011|By Diaa Hadid, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syrian protesters hurled stones and set roadblocks of burning tires against government forces trying to enter a key opposition city yesterday....
In a bid to show solidarity with the residents, US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford visited Hama yesterday to witness the situation firsthand. The State Department stressed he traveled there independently, and not as part of a trip organized by the Syrian government....
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"US, French ambassadors visit Syrian protesters’ stronghold; Huge crowds rally as government denounces trip" July 09, 2011|By Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Hundreds of thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of the opposition stronghold Hama yesterday, bolstered by a gesture of support from the American and French ambassadors, who visited the city where a massacre nearly 30 years ago came to symbolize the ruthlessness of the Assad dynasty.
The visit by US Ambassador Robert Ford drew swift condemnation from the Syrian government, which said the unauthorized trip was proof that Washington was inciting violence in the Arab nation.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the charge “absolute rubbish.’’
Then it's true.
Mass demonstrations also erupted in cities and towns nationwide, triggering a crackdown that killed at least 13 people, activists said. But Hama’s protest was by far the largest, galvanizing residents in a city that has drawn the biggest crowds since the revolt began....
Although President Bashar Assad still has a firm grip on power, international criticism over the brutal crackdown has left his regime shaken and isolated as it struggles to contain a protest movement that refuses to die.
The protesters have yet to come out in sustained numbers in the largest cities, although there were scattered protests yesterday and security forces killed one protester in Damascus.
The regime has staged large demonstrations in the capital, including one yesterday, to showcase its support.
And the Amerikan media just moves along.
In recent days, Hama residents have largely sealed off their city, setting up makeshift checkpoints with concrete blocks and burning tires to prevent security forces from storming into the city.
“As long as we have no security forces, we have no violence,’’ a Hama resident told the Associated Press by telephone from the city, asking that his name not be published out of fear for his safety.
Hama poses a potential dilemma for the Syrian regime because of its place as a symbol of opposition to the rule of the Assad family. In 1982, the late Hafez Assad ordered troops to crush a rebellion by Islamist forces, killing between 10,000 and 25,000 people, rights activists say.
A major offensive could make the city a fresh rallying cry for the opposition.
It appeared that the latest crowds approached those from a week earlier, when an estimated 300,000 people protested, although the figures could not be confirmed. Three activists estimated at least 200,000 - and likely far more - turned out.
Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted media coverage, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events on the ground.
The US and French ambassadors traveled to Hama in separate trips Thursday and left yesterday before the protests kicked off, according to officials in Washington and Paris.
In a video posted on YouTube that purports to show Ford in a sport utility vehicle near Hama’s central Assi Square, people tossed flowers and olive branches onto the vehicle and shouted for the downfall of the regime.
The Syrian government did not comment on French Ambassador Eric Chevallier’s trip to Hama.
But the regime seized on Ford’s visit to insist that foreign conspirators are behind the unrest, not true reform seekers. Relations between the United States and Syria are chronically strained over Assad’s ties with Iran.
The State Department spokeswoman said the United States informed the Syrian government of his travels ahead of time and she noted the Syrian ambassador in Washington can move freely around the United States.
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"Mobs attack US, French embassies in Syria; Protest visit by ambassadors to key opposition city" by Zeina Karam, Associated Press / July 12, 2011
BEIRUT - Hundreds of Syrian government supporters attacked the US Embassy in Damascus yesterday, smashing windows and spray-painting walls with obscenities and graffiti that called the American ambassador a dog. Guards at the French Embassy fired in the air to ward off another group of protesters.
The sharp escalation in tensions followed a visit last week by the American and French ambassadors to the city of Hama, a stronghold of opposition to authoritarian President Bashar Assad.
Syrian authorities were angered by the visit and by American Ambassador Robert Ford’s harsh criticism afterward of the government crackdown on a 4-month-old uprising. Ford’s residence was also attacked yesterday.
The United States and France both accused Syrian forces of being too slow to respond and demanded the government abide by its international obligations to protect diplomatic missions and allow envoys freedom of movement. The United States formally protested, calling the attacks “outrageous’’ and saying protesters were incited by a television station heavily influenced by Syrian authorities.
“Ford get out now,’’ protesters wrote on a paper hung on the US Embassy’s fence. “The people want to kick out the dog,’’ read graffiti scrawled in red on the wall of the embassy, along with another line cursing America. The protesters smashed the embassy sign hanging over one gate.
The United States said it would seek compensation for damage.
Syrian-US relations have been mired in mutual distrust for years. But yesterday’s attacks were the worst such violence since 2000, when a stone-throwing mob vandalized the US Embassy and ambassador’s residence over American and British airstrikes against Iraq.
The attacks pose a renewed challenge to the Obama administration. The White House has criticized the Syrian regime’s violent crackdown on peaceful protests but has refrained from calling for an end to the Assad family’s four decades of rule, seemingly wary of pressing too hard as it tries to wind down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and it faces criticism for being part of the coalition battling Moammar Khadafy in Libya.
The United States said about 300 “thugs’’ breached the wall of the compound before being dispersed by US Marine guards....
There were similar scenes at the French Embassy....
French Ambassador Eric Chevalier and Ford made separate visits to Hama on Thursday. The State Department said the trip was to support the right of Syrians to demonstrate peacefully.
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