Syrian forces fire on protesters as tanks roll into Banias

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Fears mount that regime of Bashar al-Assad is planning to repeat the siege tactics it deployed in Deraa
Katherine Marsh | Saturday 7 May 2011 18.22 BST


Protesters gather in the city of Banias, where Syrian tanks are reported
to have opened fire on demonstrators. Photograph: Ho/Reuters

Syrian tanks rolled into the Mediterranean coastal town of Banias on Saturday and opened fire on demonstrators as President Bashar al-Assad continued the violent assault on his opponents.

A day after clashes with anti-government protesters that left at least 30 dead nationwide according to activists and an eyewitness, fears mounted that the Syrian regime was planning to repeat the siege tactics it deployed in Deraa, another key opposition centre.

Those fears were bolstered by reports yesterday that Syrian forces had shot dead four women demonstrating on a coastal road near Banias. Ammar Qurabi of the National Organisation for Human Rights said the women, part of a small all-female gathering, had been protesting against the siege and the cutting of power lines when they were killed by plainclothes security forces or pro-government gunmen. Their bodies were taken to hospital in a Sunni district of the besieged town.

"Banias is now surrounded from all all directions, not a single person can go in or out," said a resident, who did not wish to be identified. He added that electricity and phone lines had been cut and residents were charging their mobile phones on car batteries. Activists said gunboats could be seen off the Banias coastline and gunfire was heard after tanks approached from three directions in the early hours.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/07/syrian-forces-fire-on-protesters

[pampango]

1. Four women among six civilians killed in a tank-backed army raid on besieged coastal city of Baniya

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/20115715242900404.html



A Syrian rights campaigner told the AFP news agency that security forces killed four women who were among about 150 people demonstrating on Saturday on the main coastal highway from Marqab village, near Baniyas, calling for the release of detained people. "Members of the security forces asked them to leave and, when they refused to do so, they opened fire killing three of them and wounding five others who were hospitalised," the activist said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group, said security forces killed at least two others during the tank-backed army attack on Baniyas and demanded that authorities allow an independent committee to investigate the deaths.

The Syrian military confirmed that it conducted an operation in Baniyas, a Mediterranean coastal city of 50,000 people, on Saturday. "Army units and security forces today pursued members of terrorist groups in and around Baniyas and neighbourhoods of Deraa to restore security and stability," the military official said.

The army entered Baniyas from three directions, advancing into Sunni districts but not Alawite neighbourhoods, the rights campaigner said. Rights activists said residents of Baniyas formed human chains in a desperate bid to halt the military operation when it began around dawn.

The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook group that has been a motor of the protests, urged Assad to "stop shooting at demonstrators, allow peaceful demonstrations ... release all political prisoners, allow political pluralism and free elections in six months". In a statement posted online, it told Assad he could be the "pride of contemporary Syria" if he transformed Syria "from a dictatorship to a democracy. "The Syrians will be grateful and it is possible to do".

[formercia]

3. Something interesting about the photo

As far as I can tell, all of the men in that picture are wearing Blue Jeans. It's a very telling cultural statement.

[ronnie624]

4. Indeed.

Polls conducted throughout the Muslim world show that a sizable majority, especially among the young, admire American culture and want cooperative relations with the United States. It's Western elites, particularly in the U.S. who believe all of the world's material and financial resources belong to them.

[joshcryer]

2. K&R