Syria Military Kill 40, at Mosque Funeral
Bashar Assad's military enforced government is not used to giving any concessions. Yet, they rapidly announced a number of reforms, even including pay raises for government workers (including themselves maybe?), increased freedom of press (was there any freedom of press to 'increase'?) and they might reconsider the 'emergency rule' that they have ruled whole country under (for the last 5 decades).
Assad ordered the release of some children taken prisoners this past week in government "crackdown" (that was the main issue that started all of the protests in the first place).
An adviser said publicly that Mr. Assad had ordered troops not to fire (any more) live rounds at protesters in Dara’a and he even admitted, “there were, maybe, some mistakes" (emphasis added)
These so-called "concessions" don't satisfy the people. More protests are expected today (Jummah) in even greater numbers, especially since many of those killed will be buried today.
1,000s marched through the streets toward the Dara'a's central mosque, Omair Masjid, one of them said, "We totally refuse" (so-called concessions).
Two days ago (Wednesday) government forces fired directly into the crowds at the masjid (mosque) using live ammunition, killing some and wounding many more, say witnesses on the scene.
A doctor helping those wounded was also shot and killed.
Later the same day, those who gathered for janaziyah (funeral prayers, standing silently in rows), were shot at as well.
On American (who did not want his identy revealed) said, "15 people" had been killed. News reports say a hospital official said nearly 40 had died since Wednesday.
Websites are reporting names of those killed and videos depicting the bloody killings have been uploaded on YouTube, showing young people being shot to death by government forces, reportedly in Dara'a, Syria.
Thursday saw even more Muslims gathering for the funeral prayers for the increased number of those slain, but reports say the military had eased up a bit and were pulling away from the central part of the city.
Syria has long been of the most closed nations in amongst the Arab countries. US and European Union constantly monitor Syria for the close ties the oppressive government has with Iran and Lebanon, and particularlly the "Hezbollah" military group.
Information has trickled out slowly and incompletely from Syria, one of the most closed nations in the Middle East and a close ally of Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. But as the death toll from the Dara’a crackdown has risen, Mr. Assad has faced growing criticism both internally, as the protests spread around the south, and from other nations.
On Thursday, the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, issued a statement condemning what he called “the Syrian government’s brutal repression of demonstrations, in particular the violence and killings of civilians at the hands of security forces.”
The Obama administration said that it was watching to see if Mr. Assad would follow through with the promises made Thursday.
“Words are words,” Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, told reporters. “We’ll obviously look for action.”
He added, “We were, and obviously remain, deeply troubled by the violence and civilian deaths, especially in Dara’a, at the hands of security forces.”
The crisis in Dara’a, near the Jordanian border, began as the uprisings spread in Tunisia and Egypt, ultimately overturning those countries’ governments. Children in Dara’a wrote slogans on walls calling for an end to Mr. Assad’s rule, and several weeks ago, about 15 children younger than 14 were arrested.
Starting last Friday, protests broke out in Dara’a and several surrounding towns demanding the release of the children. Security forces cracked down with tear gas, water cannons and, ultimately, live rounds, human rights activists say. Several people were reported killed, churning the anger that led to the protests at the Omari mosque on Wednesday.
Andrew J. Tabler, who lived in Syria for a decade and is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said six days of protests of this size were unknown in Syria since at least 1982. In February of that year, Mr. Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, killed at least 10,000 people in an assault on the city of Hama to end an Islamist uprising definitively.
“The regime is under serious pressure,” he said, “and it’s hard to predict where this may lead.”
The protests are in a Sunni area, and Mr. Tabler said the turmoil threatened to “crack the Sunni veneer” of the government of Mr. Assad, who is of the Alawite religious minority. But he said the protests had not so far taken on a strong sectarian character and were mainly a response to years of broken promises and delays in carrying out political reforms.
Mr. Tabler noted that the same spokeswoman for Mr. Assad who promised reforms on Thursday made similar promises in 2005. "Nothing happened," he said.
