"There are around 3,000 soldiers in Daraa now. They are breaking into people's houses, firing randomly at houses," the witness said. "We were sleeping and not protesting." Another witness described an onslaught of tanks infiltrating the city.
"Before dawn prayers, around 4:30 a.m., the Syrian security forces broke into Daraa," the witness said. "There were so many tanks that entered the city from its four corners. People were heading to mosques when the attack started. People in mosques started warning the people through loud speakers, but the gunfire had already started."
The witness added that ambulances were not allowed into the city and that electricity and phone lines were down.
CNN was unable to independently verify the accounts.
The Obama administration is drafting an executive order empowering the president to freeze the assets of these senior Syrian officials and ban them from any business dealings in the U.S., according to officials briefed on the deliberations.
Unilateral sanctions by Washington on Syrian officials wouldn't have much direct impact on Mr. Assad's inner circle, as most regime members have few holdings in the U.S. But countries in Europe, where the Assads are believed to have more substantial assets, will be pressured to follow Washington's lead, the officials involved in the discussions said.
FoxNews.com
Treasury will have this ready in a few weeks, after everyone's dead.
F.N.N: Clashes broke out in Daraa between dissidents in the Syrian army and between the Fourth Armored Division headed by Maher Assad and the National Guard.
I wonder how many Syrian Army "dissidents" were/are involved and what kind of equipment/armory they have access to. This would get real interesting if there was a split in his military.
Looks like some of the Syrian Army isn't too fond of killing its own. Assad allegedly sent part of the 4th Armored Division down to Daraa. The 4th is one of his better/loyal divisions. If there are officers from the 4th that have defected, that is not good news for Assad. Also, looks as if Assad's thugs (security forces) are firing on some of these defecting elements of the Syrian army. Not a bunch of free and fair journalism in Syria, so its going to be tough to get a clear picture of what is going on.
S.N.N: A demo got underway in the Homs neighborhood of Bab Sbaa in support of Daraa, Douma and Jableh.
S.N.N: Syrian security forces shot and wounded some army troops who were rushed to hospitals in Daraa for treatment. The troops, who have gone into hiding for fear of liquidation, are: Nouri al-Botman, Abdul Rahim Bakran, Ibrahim Hasan, Ahmed al-Sebsi and Amer Hammoush.
Witness in Daraa to Facebook page Syrian Revolution 2011: Five army officers have defected and stopped the advance of four tanks into the town.
The State Department is telling American citizens to leave Syria as soon as they can and is ordering personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus to leave the country. The department late Monday urged Americans to defer all travel to Syria and advised those already in the country to get out while commercial transportation is still available. It also ordered some nonessential U.S. Embassy staff and the families of all embassy personnel to leave Syria. It said the embassy would remain open for limited services.
Asimov
Posts: 104013
Incept: 2007-08-26
East Tennessee Eastern Time
Quote:
The US announcement on Monday that it was pursuing “targeted sanctions” against Syria heralds a likely shift by western governments towards increasing pressure on Damascus.
Although imposing sanctions on leading Syrian officials might have limited practical effect, it marks a big change in the US stance towards Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, and is the latest shift in tortured relations with Damascus.
The Bush administration classified Syria as an associate member of the “axis of evil” and withdrew its ambassador after the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon who had crossed swords with Mr Assad. Ties were further tested in 2007 after Israel bombed a hidden Syrian nuclear reactor that western intelligence agencies said was intended as part of a weapons programme.
But the Obama administration argued any comprehensive approach to the Middle East – and to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict – made engagement with Syria a strategic necessity.
After the weekend crackdown on protesters in Syria, the National Security Council said it was pursuing options including targeted sanctions to show that such conduct was unacceptable.
The previous reluctance of foreign powers to do more than deplore the killings of Syrian protesters contrasted sharply with action against Colonel Muammer Gaddafi of Libya and betrayed an ambivalence towards the Assad regime.
Mr Assad is no friend of the west – a status his supporters exploit – but he has presided over an uneasy regional detente that means some influential figures in countries such as the US and Israel want him to stay, observers say. Leading figures in the US, Turkish and Israeli governments worry about the consequences of the end of Ba’ath party rule in Syria, citing concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood and the prospect of strife between the ruling Alawite minority and the Sunni majority.
Overseas countries have condemned the violence in Syria but until Monday held back from threatening sanctions or other retaliation. The security crackdown has made the past few days the bloodiest in the month-long unrest.
Obeida Nahas, director of the Levant Institute think-tank in London and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, said Mr Assad’s regime had “only reached this point” because it was allowed to do so by international politics that focused on its supposed role in maintaining wider stability.
“No one wants international intervention in the way that it is in Libya,” said Mr Nahas. “But people are fed up with the negative intervention that was allowing Assad to do whatever he wanted in the region.”
Britain and France, which had made the most strident calls for military intervention against Col Gaddafi, have denounced the Syrian violence but have not warned Mr Assad publicly of potential consequences.
London, which has been pressing the Syrian leadership to stop killing protesters and to abide by its international human rights obligations, has neither called for sanctions nor ruled them out.
In France, Syria’s former colonial power, Alain Juppé, the foreign minister, condemned “blind and brutal repression” and called on Damascus to renounce the use of violence.
Syria’s neighbours Turkey and Israel, both strategically important countries in the wider Middle East, are unlikely to be pressing for Mr Assad to step down.
The regime in Damascus supports the Islamist Hamas and Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shia movement, two of Israel’s most committed enemies, but Mr Assad is regarded by Israeli officials as more interested in preserving his rule than taking on the Jewish state.
Although the international community has limited leverage with Syria, a new sanctions regime could hurt the government, say analysts. Joshua Landis, an authority on Syria, said the economy “needs the outside world” in a way that it has not previously after several years of economic liberalisation.
Reports by Michael Peel in Abu Dhabi, Daniel Dombey in Washington, Abigail Fielding-Smith in Beirut and James Blitz in London
It's justifiably immoral to deal morally with an immoral entity. If you trade based on what other people say, you will lose money. Especially what I say. I won't be held responsible. Festina lente.
The Syrian ambassador to the UN had said just before that the reason why there were so many casualties was not firing on "Syrian citizens" who are "of course peaceful" but instead "armed groups"
With increasing military defections, the Syrian regime's violent crackdown may have backfired, analyst says.
In the early morning of April 25, the city of Deraa was invaded from all four corners by units affiliated with the 4th Division, which falls under the direct leadership of Maher Al-Assad, and the 5th Division, led by Muhammad Saleh Al-Rifai, with reinforcement from the 132 Battalion.
Shortly thereafter, reports began trickling then pouring in speaking of a mutiny in the units affiliated with 5th Division and troops from these units standing up to and halting the advance of units from the 4th Division trying to reach Al-Omary Mosque in central Deraa.
At first, many of us thought this might be a reference to a few more defections, as had transpired two weeks ago, but the reports continue to come from different sources and eyewitnesses that we managed to reach all through the day, leading us to believe that there might indeed be something worth monitoring here.
If such a mutiny has indeed taken place so early in the game, then Assad’s military gambit seems to be backfiring, a development that could spark a wider division within the army in the next few hours and days, with all different sorts of implications for the protest movement, depending on how this internal conflict plays out.
France summoned Syria's ambassador to the foreign ministry to repeat its demand that Damascus halt the use of force against protests, the ministry said.
Five EU countries are summoning Syria's ambassadors over its violent crackdown on protestors, France said, saying it was joined in the move by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Al-Arabiya: Daraa residents are complaining of water and food shortages.
Western governments are total ****ing hypocrites and have as little credibility as the syrian government as far as I am concerned. The whole world has turned into a complete and utter cluster****.
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I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death. - Patrick Henry
Bohemian
Posts: 9658
Incept: 2010-07-27
California
Syria's 'Day of rage' is getting ugly. The Muslim Brotherhood has called for more protests.
Quote:
The Syrian government has mobilised army units in Damascus, the capital, and other cities as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of cities including the restive coastal town of Baniyas, according to witnesses.
Anti-government activists had called for protests following Friday prayers to commemorate the killings of over 100 protesters last Friday. The unrest is the greatest challenge to the country's ruling Baath Party since it seized power in 1963, with protesters demanding an end to the decade-long rule of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president.
Al Jazeera correspondent Rula Amin, reporting from Damascus, said today's slogan is "solidarity for Deraa" - the southern city that has borne the brunt of a crackdown by Syrian security forces.
The call for mass demonstrations was made in a statement on the Facebook page of Syrian Revolution 2011 which has called for protests for greater freedom inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.
"To the youths of the revolution, tomorrow we will be in all the places, in all the streets ... We will gather at the besieged towns, including with our brothers in Deraa," the statement said.
It said demonstrations would also be staged in other flashpoint towns such as Homs in the centre of the country and Baniyas in the northwest.
Meanwhile, an eyewitness in Deraa, speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday from close to the Omari Mosque that has been a focus for the uprising, described a scene of death and devastation.
"The politicians are put there to give you the idea you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice; you have owners. They own you. They own everything." - George Carlin
* I think Ann Barnhardt is more and more right. God help us! * Progressives / Marxists / Communists are many things, STUPID and IMPATIENT are not two of them. * A hot civil war is coming. * And people wonder why I prep!
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