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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
19 Killed as Syrians Rally on Eid al-Adha
2011-11-07
[An Nahar] Security forces killed at least 19 civilians as anti-regime demonstrations were staged across Syria on Sunday, the first day of the Moslem feast marking the end of the hajj, a human rights
...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you...
group said.

It was the fourth straight day of deadly violence since Syria agreed to an Arab peace blueprint aimed at ending nearly eight months of bloodshed.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the killings made it clear that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
's regime had no intention of ending its bloody bid to crush dissent.

Sixteen of the non-combatants were killed in Homs, the flashpoint central city where protests against Assad's rule were held in most districts despite a weeks-long military crackdown.

Most of the deaths occurred in the Baba Amro neighborhood of Homs, where festivities have raged for days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received by Agence La Belle France Presse.

Security forces also rubbed out two civilians in the city of Hama, which lies further to the north, and another in Idlib province, near the border with Turkey.

And in Talbi, a town near Homs, "four protesters were maimed, one seriously, when the security forces fired on a demonstration," said the Britannia-based Observatory.

"Dozens of people were maimed by security forces who shot at a major demonstration in Kafrouma, an area of the province of Idlib, in the northwest of Syria," it added.

Security forces also fired teargas and shots in the air to disperse a demonstration in Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
' western Kafar Sousseh neighborhood, the watchdog said.

Five protesters were maimed and more than 70 people jugged during the Kafar Sousseh crackdown, the Observatory said.

In other incidents, armed forces stormed and surrounded the villages of Zamalka and Irbin, in the province of Damascus, said the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), an activist network spurring protests in Syria.

The latest reported crackdown on protests came as Syrian state radio said President Assad attended Al-Nour mosque in the northern town of Raqqa for prayers on Sunday morning to mark Eid al-Adha.

But following the morning prayers, marches were held across the country in support of Homs and against the regime, said both the Observatory and the LCC.

The latest deaths bring to at least 60 the number of people killed since Assad's government signed on to the Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
peace plan on November 2.

The Arab roadmap calls for an end to violence, the release of those jugged, the withdrawal of the army from urban areas and free movement for observers and the media, as well as talks between the regime and opposition.

As a first step, Syria on Saturday said it had released more than 550 people who were jugged during anti-regime protests, to mark the Eid al-Adha feast.

But the Syrian Observatory said detainees in prisons across Syria had on Sunday begun hunger strikes in protest at the authorities "who are not keeping their promises of freedom."

The French foreign minister said it was now clear there was "nothing more to expect" from Assad's regime in terms of honoring its commitments under the Arab peace plan.

"I personally think there is nothing more to expect from this regime and that, despite its occasional announcements, it will not commit to a program of reforms," Juppe told Europe 1 radio on Sunday.

"Different initiatives have been taken to try to bring Bashir al-Assad to dialogue. You can see what happened to the last one: Bashir al-Assad accepts the vaporous Arab League peace plan and the next day he massacres dozens more people in the streets."

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said that failure of the peace deal agreed on Wednesday would be catastrophic and demanded an immediate end to the bloodshed.

The United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
estimates that more than 3,000 people have been killed in a brutal crackdown since anti-regime protests erupted in mid-March.

Posted by:Fred

#2  american

I suspect that the Saudis have offered Assad asylum in Bahrain or possibly free passage to Iran if Assad goes with dialogue and is then overthrown.

However, Assad may think he can get to Iran even without this deal or he may think that the Persians won't be able and willing to protect him.
Posted by: Lord Garth   2011-11-07 19:25  

#1  What incentive does Assad have to follow the Arab roadmap? Did they offer him anything in exchange??
Posted by: American Delight   2011-11-07 09:48  

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