*Update: Anger in Syria * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-JIo6wdUBQ&feature=player_embedded
Syrian protesters target Baath Party offices Ruling party headquarters in Latakia and near Daraa set on fire as protesters continue to defy security crackdown. Last Modified: 26 Mar 2011 17:37 [image: Email Article] Email Article<http://english.aljazeera.net/Services/ArticleTools/Send2Friend.aspx?GUID=201132616546326475> [image: Print Article] Print Article [image: Share article] Share Article <http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php> [image: Send Feedback] Send Feedback<http://english.aljazeera.net/Services/ArticleTools/SendFeedback.aspx?GUID=201132616546326475> *Clashes between protesters and security forces has left dozens dead and injured, according to rights groups [Reuters]* Two people are reported dead in clashes between Syrian anti-government protesters and security forces in the coastal city of Latakia, where mourners attending a funeral set fire to the local Baath Party building and a police station. There were witness reports of Syrian security forces firing tear gas on several hundred protesters who staged a silent sit-in near a mosque in the southern city of Daraa. The clashes came as anti-government protests continued despite a government crackdown, with authorities freeing about 260 political prisoners in an attempt to appease demonstrators. *Protesters tore down and burnt the statue of Hafez al-Assad, the late Syrian president, in Deraa [Reuters]* The protests, which began on March 15, have turned deadly, with at least 15 people killed in clashes between demonstrators and security forces. Activiststs and human rights organisations put the figure higher, with Amnesty International claiming 55 had been killed. In Tafas, south of the capital Damascus, angry residents set ablaze a police station and the local headquarters of the Baath party, which has ruled Syria single-handedly for close to half a century. The residents had gathered for the burial of three demonstrators who had been shot dead by security forces in rallies on Friday. In Daraa, a tribal town that has emerged as the symbol of the Syrian protests, some 300 shirtless young men climbed on the rubble of a statue of Hafez al-Assad, the late Syrian president, shouting anti-regime slogans, witnesses said. Protesters had pulled down the statue on Friday in a scene that recalled the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Iraq in 2003 by US troops. They had also burned the home of the governor. *'Armed group'* In the northern city of Latakia, "armed men" on rooftops fired at passers-by, a Syrian official said, without disclosing whether there had been any casualties. ** Bouthaina Shaaban, a Syrian presidential advisor, said an "armed group" had occupied the roofs of some buildings and was allegedly shooting randomly at citizens. "There is a project to sow strife in Syria," she said in Damascus. Ammar Qarabi, an activist in exile in Egypt, told Reuters news agency that security forces shot dead two people who tried to torch the local ruling party headquarters on Saturday. Syrian authorities have announced a string of reforms in an apparent bid to appease the increasingly angry demonstrators, including the possibility of ending emergency rule which has been in place since 1963. There have also been rallies in support of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, with thousands chanting their loyalty to the ruling party in Damascus on Friday. Assad loyalists also demanded that the foreign media, including Al Jazeera, broadcast pro-government rallies. Ahmed Badr Hassoun, Syria's state-appointed Sunni Mufti blamed the "strife" on some "infiltrators" and "corruptors." "What happens requires that people reconcile together and not goad them against each other ... what's happening in Libya, do you want it to happen in Syria?" he told Al Jazeera television, siding with the ruling party. Source: Al Jazeera and agencies ----------------- www.al-bab.com Assad: waving goodbye? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9flGn0y2_d0&feature=player_embedded The video above shows protesters in Deraa attacking a statue of the former Syrian president, Hafez al-Assad. The scene is highly evocative of Firdous Square in Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/apr/10/iraq.arts>(with the aid of US troops) in 2003. Indeed, the wobbling statue of Assad is giving a very similar kind of wave. Below is another video from Deraa, this time showing the current president's image being attacked. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz56DBwjLdQ&feature=player_embedded The "fear barrier" is an important consideration for both protesters and Arab regimes. The regimes' basic calculation is that at any given time only a relatively small number of people are likely to cause trouble because the rest will be too afraid. So long as the fear barrier remains, they can be reasonably confident of dealing with the situation. What we saw in Tunisia and Egypt was that once the fear barrier was broken large-scale protests erupted in numerous places and the security forces were no longer able to cope. One sign of the fear barrier breaking is when people start openly destroying images of the president and this is now happening in Syria. Syria, at the moment, appears to be on the cusp. It's probably fair to say that the fear barrier has been well and truly broken in Deraa, and it is cracking but not quite broken in other parts of the country. Considering that it is little more than a week since the first serious stirrings <http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2011/blog1103b.htm#stirrings_in_syria>against the regime occurred in Syria, events seem to be moving quite fast. Coverage in the mainstream media is still fairly sparse partly because attention in focused mainly on Libya, but also because of reporting restrictions inside Syria. Readers may find the following sources of information useful: *NOW Lebanon* <http://www.nowlebanon.com/> Frequent live updates. Those from Friday are here<http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=254495>. *Syrian Revolution Digest* <http://syrianrevolutiondigest.blogspot.com/>* *Ammar Abdulhamid's new website provides brief commentary, plus a large number of videos. *Syria Comment* <http://www.syriacomment.com/> A blog by Joshua Landis of Oklahomah University, who is a leading expert on Syria. *Syrian Revolution* <http://www.facebook.com/Syrian.Revolution> A Facebook page *Syrians for Peaceful Reform*<http://www.facebook.com/Syrians.for.peaceful.reform> Another Facebook page In an article<http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2061364,00.html#ixzz1HcWJTSdE>for Time magazine, Joshua Landis asks: "Is there a soft landing for Syria?" His answer is: probably not. The International Crisis Group has also produced a risk assessment<http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/publication-type/media-releases/2011/conflict-risk-alert-syria.aspx>. It says: "Syria is at what is rapidly becoming a defining moment for its leadership. There are only two options. One involves an immediate and inevitably risky political initiative that might convince the Syrian people that the regime is willing to undertake dramatic change. The other entails escalating repression, which has every chance of leading to a bloody and ignominious end." The ICG sees three inter-related challenges for the Assad regime: 1. "A diffuse but deep sense of fatigue within society at large, combined with a new unwillingness to tolerate what Syrians had long grown accustomed to namely the arrogance of power in its many forms ..." 2. A long list of specific grievances. "These typically involve a combination: rising cost of living, failing state services, unemployment, corruption and a legacy of abuse by security services." 3. "The third challenge relates to the regimes many genuine enemies, all of whom undoubtedly will seek to seize this rare opportunity to precipitate its demise." It goes almost without saying that whatever happens in Syria will have a knock-on effect in Lebanon especially for Syria's allies there (including Hizbullah). An article from AFP<http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/25/142976.html>looks at some of the implications. The Beirut Observer website is reporting<http://www.beirutobserver.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50664%3Afarouk-share3&catid=41%3A2010-10-03-20-24-15>(in Arabic) that Vice-President Farouq al-Sharaa has been shot following a dispute with Maher al-Assad and the president's brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat. I wouldn't be surprised if they had quarrelled, but I have no idea how much credence if any to give to the report of the shooting. Finally, a quick word on *Libya* which I am not attempting to cover in detail here because it is getting so much attention elsewhere. *Suggestions that the situation will turn into a stalemate or result in a Korean-style division of the country don't strike me as very persuasive. I wouldn't rule that possibility out, but it seems to me there is also a reasonable chance of the Gaddafi regime imploding fairly quickly in a matter of weeks rather than months or years. * [image: Tweet this!] <http://twitter.com/home/?status=Assad: waving goodbye? Syrian protesters attack symbols of the regime http://bit.ly/evi4gD> *Posted by Brian Whitaker, 26 March 2011. 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