Syrian regime's shells pound Deraa's Roman quarter

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian & Agencies

Death toll rises to 535 as stranglehold on southern city at the heart of uprising tightens following storming of key mosque
Sunday 1 May 2011 12.13 BST

Syrian army tanks have shelled the old quarter of Deraa, the southern city at the heart of the six-week-old uprising, a witness said on Sunday.

Deraa has been without water, fuel or electricity since Monday, when the regime sent in troops backed by tanks and snipers to crush protests by people seeking an end to President Bashar al-Assad's authoritarian rule. Tanks and armoured personnel vehicles have cut off neighbourhoods, and snipers on rooftops throughout the city have kept residents pinned in their homes. Other areas of the country have also come under military control, but Deraa has come under the most serious stranglehold as the death toll has soared to 535.

Tanks fired shells into the heart of Deraa's ancient Roman quarter, said a resident who lives on the outskirts of the city. He said he could identify the weaponry because he was a former soldier.

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Friday was the second deadliest day since the uprising began in mid-March in Deraa, sparked by the arrest of a group of teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a wall. The protest movement quickly spread and is now posing the gravest threat to the 40-year rule of the Assad family.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/01/syrian-shells-deraa-roman-quarter

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "Regime" is debatable in comparable context.

[Turborama]

2. In Syria's rebel city 'they will shoot anything that moves'

Deraa is the centre of the revolt against the Assad regime. Here, a resident of a village on its outskirts describes life under siege
guardian.co.uk, Sunday May 1 2011 18.39 BST


Jordanians protest in solidarity with the rebels in the Syrian town of Deraa.
Photograph: Ali Jarekji/Reuters

There was shooting again last night. It has become routine. We haven't slept more than two hours at a time since the shooting began. It stops and then starts again. There is maybe one hour break between shooting.

We are like hostages in our homes. We are surrounded by tanks.

Yesterday we heard another three were killed. They were trying to go out to support the martyrs from Deraa, and the army shot them. They were only young; 18, 19, 22. There were more injured as well – 16 more from here but I don't know how many more nearby, because we can't communicate.

We are distributing all the injured among the houses because we are not allowed to take them to hospitals. We are trying to treat them for gunshot wounds inside the houses, but we don't have any medical equipment, we don't have any anaesthetics or even enough bandages– just basic first aid. Some of them are critical. There is no medical aid at all, and the doctors who try to treat the wounded are being arrested or shot.

We haven't had any electricity for five days now, and no water. There's no gas. We are living by candlelight at night. We don't have any food. We are surviving on the pickled vegetables that we store over the year, that's all we have left to eat. We had tank water but today we heard the army has shot the tanks.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/01/syria-middleeast

[Turborama]

3. Assad's fall would create shockwaves from Tehran to Tel Aviv

Unrest in Syria has greater potential consequences than any other event in the Arab Spring so far
Zaki Chehab | The Observer, Sunday May 1 2011

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The international consequences of regime change in Syria are many and complex. The fallout will be particularly marked in Lebanon and Palestine, and there will also be impacts on the country's alliances with Iran, Turkey, and Iraq, and, perhaps most importantly, on its relationship with Israel.

Damascus's influence has always been strong in these areas. Syria is vital to Hezbollah, which leads a Lebanese coalition supporting Assad. Lebanon has no land borders except with Syria on the east and north, and with Israel to the south. To the west is the Mediterranean, swimming with battleships and an international force to prevent the smuggling of weapons. Hezbollah's links with Syria are, in turn, the linchpin of the alliance between Tehran and Damascus, for the party's first loyalty is to Iran and the supreme leader of its Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The fall of the Assad regime would mean the loss of Iran's only ally in the region and thus a weakening of the clerical regime. This could boost the enthusiasm of Iranian reformers, who have been sidelined and repressed since the disputed presidential elections in Iran in 2009.

Damascus also hosts at least 10 Palestinian factions, most prominently Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Analysts say that Assad's tacit support comes not from interest in Arab causes but a desire to gather cards to play against the US and Israel in negotiations to win back the Golan Heights.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/01/assad-fall-shockwaves