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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Hama cut off by Syrian Army |
| 2011-08-05 |
| BEIRUT — Syrian authorities kept the restive city of Hama under a blackout on Thursday, cutting phone lines, Internet and electricity as part of a brutal, five-day-old crackdown on anti-government dissent. Gunmen in plainclothes are randomly shooting people in the streets of the besieged Syrian city of Hama and families are burying their loved ones in gardens at home for fear of being killed themselves if they venture out to cemeteries, a resident said. “People are being slaughtered like sheep while walking in the street,” said the resident, who spoke by phone on condition of anonymity. “I saw with my own eyes one young boy on a motorcycle who was carrying vegetables being run over by a tank.” He said he left Hama briefly through side roads to smuggle in food supplies. The resident said around 250 people have been killed since Sunday. Hozan Ibrahim, of the Local Coordination Committees which tracks the crackdown on protesters, said up to 30 people may have been killed in Hama on Wednesday only based on reports from fleeing residents. But neither of those numbers could be immediately verified. Phones and Internet in Hama have been cut or severely hampered for at least two days. Electricity has been out or sporadic since Sunday. Rami Abdul Rahman, who heads the London-based Observatory for Human Rights, said that some 1,000 families have fled Hama in the past two days, most of them to the village of Mashtal Hilu west of Hama and Al Salamieh to the east. On Thursday, President Bashar Assad issued two legislative decrees that will allow the formation of political parties alongside the Baath Party and enable newly formed parties to run for parliament and local councils. Both draft bills were endorsed by the cabinet last month, and were key demands of the opposition movement. But opposition figures now dismiss the moves as manoeuvring tactics and insist they want regime change. Abdul Karim Rihawi, Damascus-based chief of the Syrian Human Rights League, said there was no information coming out from Hama on Thursday. “A high number of casualties is expected from such a massive military operation,” he said. Ibrahim said there is concern about a deterioration in the humanitarian situation in Hama because medical supplies and bread were in short supply even before the latest crackdown and those shortages were growing more dire. Rihawi said that elsewhere in Syria, seven people were killed by security forces on Wednesday night. Two protesters were shot dead in the Damascus central neighbourhood of Midan, three in the southern village of Nawa and one in the ancient city of Palmyra. An 11-year-old boy was also killed when security forces opened fire on a protest in Talbiseh, near Homs, he said. He said more than 60 Syrian children have died since the start of the protests in March. The Local Coordination Committees confirmed the deaths. Abdul Rahman said military operations were also under way in the central city of Homs, where heavy machine guns and automatic gunfire was heard throughout the night in the Bab Sbaa and Qalaa districts. At least 27 people have been arrested in security raids, he said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 They want them out in the streets, the better to kill more of them. |
| Posted by: gromky 2011-08-05 20:51 |
| #5 The sequesterization of Hama means that Syria may use some Hezbollah and Iran republican guard types as part of its ops and still minimize the chance that this would be reported. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2011-08-05 17:50 |
| #4 As per the boffins at Shire Network News. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2011-08-05 15:58 |
| #3 cutting phone lines, Internet and electricity If you want people to stay inside and not do anything, you leave the electricity (for the AC) and the internet ON. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2011-08-05 15:57 |
| #2 Relative to his father, Assad Jr is being remarkably restrained in his suppression of the insurrection. It's becoming clear that his control of the security apparatus is nowhere near as secure as that of his father. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2011-08-05 11:36 |
| #1 Against all local doubters, young Pencil-Neck is growing into the job. |
| Posted by: S 2011-08-05 10:58 |