Protesters take to the streets in the hundreds of thousands showing the futility of terror and intimidation. The regime has fallen!
Friday June 17, 2011
Aleppo offers her first martyr as Assad security forces kills 19 protesters as part of their ongoing crackdown. The dead also include a 13-year old boy who fell in Dael City in the Deraa Province, and two protesters in Deir Ezzor who tore posters of Hafiz and Bashar.
Protests took place in Deraa City, the cradle of the revolution, once again, due to a recent decrease in the numbers of troops and security forces assigned to the city. Protesters used called for toppling the regime.
Protests also took place in Mouarrat Al-Nouman and Saraqib, despite being besieged by the army and despite the migration of many of residents to the relative safety of the borders with Turkey. Protesters used called for toppling the regime.
Protesters in Lattakia, who flooded many neighborhoods despite massive army and security presence, carried banners in many languages asking for the departure of Assad. One banner in Chinese criticized the Chinese government for its pro-regime policies. Protesters used called for toppling the regime.
In Hama City, and in response to the organized pro-Assad rally that took place in Damascus on Wednesday, in which supporters sported a 2500 meter long flag, local protesters brought out a 3,000 meter long flag combining the current Baath flag with the Independence flag adopted at the Antalya Conference. While loyalists wrote on their flag “God, Syria, Bashar,” protesters wrote on theirs “Hama will not kneel,” as they called for toppling the regime. Meanwhile, Hama residents threatened to go on a month-long strike should army tanks recently stationed outside their city venture into the city.
The towns of Rastan and Talbisseh also witnessed mass demonstrations despite heavy army and security presence.
Protesters in the neighborhood of Bayadah in Homs came under heavy gunfire leaving 2 dead.
Meanwhile the City of Damascus witnessed a number of demonstrations. For while security officers were busy trapping and brutally assaulting over 700 protesters at Hassan Mosque in the traditional Midan District, another Midan Mosque was the focus of huge demonstration where with protesters calling for toppling the regime and shouting slogans against Bashar, Maher and their cousin Rami Makhlouf.
The most important development in Damascus though was the demonstration in the Jadat area in the Muhajireen District, an area close to the presidential palace, foreign embassies and the houses of many government officials.
The rural areas surrounding Damascus fielded dozens of major demonstrations, including in the suburbs of Douma Madaya, Zabadani, Al-Qadam, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, Qatana and Qarrah. They were also massive demonstrations in Saqba, Hammouriyyeh and Jisreen which later merged together in the main square of the nearby town of Kafar Batna.
The northeastern communities of Deir Ezzor, Mayadeen, Qouriyeh and Alboukamal also witnessed mass protests, with protesters’ attempts to court the army yielding few more defectors, a development that prompted security officers and Assad loyalist to open fire on said defectors killing an unspecified number.
Residents of Deraa Province, the cradle of revolution, took to the streets again in the 10,000s in another show signifying the futility of the violent crackdown. A 1,000 deaths later, and following weeks of terror living under the control of the 4th Division, the fear barrier has not been rebuilt. The regime has indeed fallen.
Kurdish-majority communities of Al-Qamishly, Amoudeh, Kobani/Ayn Al-Arab continued to take part in the protest movement. Indeed, protesters in Amudeh burnt a Russian flag as an expression of their discontent with Russia’s pro-Asasd policies and stands.
As Angelina Jolie visits Syrian refugees in their camps in Turkey, some (refugees at the Yayladagi Camp) have gone on a hunger strike to protest their treatment by Turkish authorities, who won’t allow them to contact the outside world, receive visitors or organize anti-Assad demonstrations. The situation in other refugee camps seems to be better though.
The Assad dynasty is being consigned to the history books, where it will probably be the subject of a paragraph or two. Meanwhile, the Syrian people are writing a new chapter in their history, under the humble title of “Another New Beginning.” We certainly deserve it.
Hama City: “We don’t love you, leave us alone and take your party with you”
http://youtu.be/rRek4d1Ry2Y
http://youtu.be/rRek4d1Ry2Y
A piece of the large flag hoisted by the Hama protesters, before it was sewn with the other pieces to make the 3,000 meters long flag. Writing: “the people want to topple the regime” “We take death over humiliation.”
And the protests carry into the night…
Deraa / Dael: protesters face an army tank and chant “the people want to topple the regime.” Eventually (2nd video), soldiers fire on protesters killing two including a 13-year old boy (3rd video).
The protests that preceded the attacks by army units
Deraa / Deraa City: despite heavy military presence on the streets (1st video), protests took place in this, the cradle of the Syrian revolution, with protesters chanting: “Listen, Assads, no rule lasts forever” and “the people want to topple the regime” (2nd and 3rd video)
Deir Ezzor: thousands of protesters chant and wonder about the whereabouts of the Shabbiha (pro-Assad militias). Eventually, they come under heavy gunfire (2nd and 3rd videos). 4th video shows a fallen protester
More videos from martyr’s Square gathering
Aleppo / Eizzaz: “the people want to topple the regime”
Aleppo / Al-Itha’a:
Damascus / Al-Qadam: “A sit in until the regime falls”
Damascus / Barzeh Town: security forces firing bullets and tear gas into the crowds of protesters
Damascus / Midan / Hassan Mosque: security forces and pro-Assad militias trap 70o protesters inside the mosque and begin chanting: “the people want Bashar Al-Assad” and “Abu Hafiz Abu Hafiz.” Meanwhile, protesters in another part of Midan took the opportunity to organize their own demonstration in which they chanted “Leave us alone and take your party with you”
Damascus / Qaboun: the army invades
Homs / Khaldiyyeh: protesters come under heavy gunfire
Before the crackdown, the Protesters hoisted the Syrian flag and chant “the people want to topple the regime
Homs / Deir Baalbah: Banners “Leave” “Erdogan, tell Assad your people don’t love you”
A protester short by security officers
Homs / Al-Qarabees: “we don’t love you, leave us and take your party with you… the people want to topple the regime”
Homs / Tal Kalakh: kids organize a small protest despite military siege of this border town. “The people want to topple the regime”
Homs / Bab Al-Sibaa
Salamiyyeh: protests continue tin this mixed city of Alawites, Ismailites and Sunnis
Banyas: despite army crackdown, the residents of Banyas are still committed to their erstwhile call of “the people want to topple the regime”
Alboukamal: army tanks did not scare away the inhabitants of Alboukamal, whose commitment to the cause remains unwavering. “Leave, leave”
Idlib / Kafar Takhareem: just as happened in Deraa, as army units go after the main centers of protest in the province of Idlib, smaller communities take on the mantle of the revolution.
Idlib / Saraqib: “Long live Syria, Down with Bashar Al-Assad. Syria is ours and does not belong to the Assads”
Deraa / Al-Hraak: Thousands take to the streets. “The people want to topple the regime”
Deraa / Nawa: “Leave us, you coward… the people want to topple the regime”
Deraa / Sanamein: “God is Greater than the oppressor”
Deraa / Jassem: another city in the cradle revolution recaptures the spirit and the initiative
Deraa / Qamhaneh
Deraa / Ma’arabah
Damascus / Kisweh: “the people want to topple the regime”
Damascus / Saqba: more than 10,000 protesters take part, chanting “Damn your soul Hafiz”
Protesters hoist the Syrian and Turkish flags and chant “the people want to topple the regime”
Damascus / Artouz: protesters carry the independence flag
Damascus / Ruknaddine
Damascus / Zabadani: Protesers chant “the people want to topple the regime” as they carry banners mocking the recent retirement of Rami Makhlouf
“The people want to topple the regime”
Damascus / Darayyah: nightly vigil
Damascus / Mouaddamiyyah: nightly vigil
“Syrian army is for liberation, not for killing the people”
Idlib / Idlib City
“Syria is free, Bashar get out”
Lattakia: “the people want to topple the regime”
Protesters spray on a wall: “Leave, O killer of children”
Lattakia: protesters burn Russian, Chinese, Iranian and Hezblooah flags, as well as Assad posters.
Protesters carry A Chinese flag and a banner critical of Chinese pro-Assad stance
Jableh: “the people want to topple the regime”
Hama / Teebat Al-Imam: “Syria wants freedom”
Hama City: protesters hang myriad signs on the walls of the Governor’s Office, decrying the security crackdown
Hama City: women take part in the protests
Hama / Sauran: “the people want to topple the regime”
Homs / Al-Qseir: “the people want to topple the regime”
Amoudeh: Kurdish protesters burn the Russian flag as they chant “the people want to topple the regime”
Sirikane / Ras Al-Ain: Kurdish protesters chant “Our revolution is peaceful and we want democracy”
Kobani / Ain Al-Arab: Kurdish protesters chant “We want freedom”
Ammar, a poster called 'Revlon' on Syria Comment noted a circular invitation to a 'salvation congress' that appeared on the Syrian Revolution page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.joshualandis.com/blog/?p=10202&cp=all#comment-256140
My single greatest puzzlement about Syria is that they (Them), the Syrian government, do not use their greatest weapon. Instead the president seems to be in hiding behind the walls of a Kremlin. He should speak, and try to wrest calm from chaos . . .