Sunday, May 1, 2011 9:39:00 AM EDT
Syrian army tanks shell city at heart of uprising
Photo: AP
CAIRO (AP) — Syrian army tanks shelled the old quarter of a city at the heart of the country's six-week-old uprising Sunday, as military reinforcements rolled in to join a siege that has lasted for nearly a week, a witness said.
Residents have remained defiant: Unable to leave their homes, they have chanted "God is great!" to each other from their windows in the evenings, infuriating security forces and raising their own spirits.
"Our houses are close to each other, so even though we can't go outside, we stand by the windows and chant," said a Daraa resident, speaking to The Associated Press by satellite phone. "Our neighbors can hear us and they respond."
Daraa has been without water, fuel or electricity since Monday, when the regime sent in troops backed by tanks and snipers to try to crush protests seeking an end to President Bashar Assad's authoritarian rule.
Tanks and armored personal vehicles have cut off neighborhoods, and snipers nesting on rooftops throughout the city have kept residents pinned in their homes. Other areas of the country have also come under military control, but Daraa has faced the most serious stranglehold.
The death toll has soared to 545 nationwide from government forces firing on demonstrators — action that has drawn international condemnation and U.S. financial penalties on senior figures in Assad's regime.
Tanks fired shells into the heart of Daraa's ancient Roman quarter Sunday, said a resident who lives on the outskirts of the city. He said he could identify the weaponry because he was a former soldier.
Men were forbidden to leave their homes but women were allowed out in the early morning to search for bread, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear that Syrian forces would identify him.
The witness' accounts could not be independently verified. Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted access to trouble spots, making it almost impossible to confirm the dramatic events shaking one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Arab world.
The unrest has repercussions far beyond Syria's borders because of its alliances with militant groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Palestinian Hamas and with Shiite powerhouse Iran.
If the regime in Syria falls, the instability has the potential to upend the regional power balance in a part of the world already riven by strife.
In recent weeks, there have been small signs that cracks are developing in the regime.
Hundreds of members of Assad's ruling Baath Party have resigned over the crackdown.
Human rights activists uploaded a video to YouTube on Sunday that they say showed another 200 party members publicly stepping down in Rasten. Rasten and the nearby town of Talbisseh saw some of the worst violence on Friday, when security forces opened fire on dozens of protesters.
"Our martyrs don't just deserve that we resign from the party. They deserve that we step on this party!" said one man speaking into a microphone as a few thousand residents crowded before a stage.
In addition to the military siege, security forces continued their arrest campaign against activists and suspected demonstrators, said Damascus-based activist Razan Zaitouneh, who is in hiding with her husband.
"They want to paralyze the (protest) movement," Zaitouneh said Sunday.
Zaitouneh said security forces arrested her husband's 20-year-old brother to pressure the couple to turn themselves in. She said the arrest happened on Saturday afternoon after the young man was checking on their house in Damascus.
"He called us saying they (security forces) are banging heavily on the door. He was terribly frightened and he said they would rip off the door," Zaitouneh said.
An hour later, Zaitouneh said, the young man called them again, clearly shaken. "He said: 'Come, I want to see you.' It was clear he was under pressure to talk to us," she said. They have not been able to contact the young man since.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also independently reported widespread arrests. He said they had also revised their death toll upward to 545 after violent events on Saturday.
On Saturday, Syrian troops killed four people while storming a mosque that became a focal point for protesters in Daraa, and security forces in Damascus kept dozens of women from marching on parliament to urge Assad to end his crackdown.
Another six people were killed in separate incidents Saturday, said Abdul-Rahman.
The military raid on the Omari mosque in Daraa came a day after 65 people were killed, most of them in Daraa.
Friday was the second deadliest day since the uprising began in mid-March in Daraa, kicked off by the arrest of a group of teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a wall. The protest movement quickly spread nationwide and is now posing the gravest threat to the 40-year ruling dynasty of the Assad family.
The president has responded with overtures of reform coupled with a brutal crackdown — although in the past week, the regime has intensified its attempts to crush the revolt by force.
On Saturday, Syrian Prime Minister Adel Safar said the government is preparing a "comprehensive plan for the aspired reforms" in the coming weeks "in response to the citizens' demands and needs."
But previous overtures have failed to dampen the protests, which are now seeking Assad's ouster. The mounting death toll has served to embolden the movement, which at first appeared only to be demanding reforms.
No comments:
Post a Comment