Syrians take to streets over Hama massacre as outrage grows

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Tens of thousands of Syrians returned to the streets to denounce President Bashar al-Assad's regime and declare support for the residents of Hama, where an estimated 200 residents have been killed in a government assault since Sunday.

Troops opened fire on crowds of demonstrators after Friday prayers, killing at least 10 people amid mounting international condemnation of the brutal tactics deployed by Assad's forces in the five-month uprising.

In Hama, tanks resumed shelling of residential districts around 4am, as people were beginning their fast for Ramadan, a resident told Associated Press.

State-run Syrian TV released footage from inside Hama for the first time, showing widespread devastation on the streets. Scenes of burned-out buildings, barricaded roads and damaged cars suggest the battles have been far more intense than the regime has previously admitted. With journalists unable to operate freely in Syria it is not possible to verify claims by activists that 200 people have been killed by military shelling and sniping in the city during the last six days.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/05/syria-hama-massacre-outrage

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Syrian protesters march in solidarity with residents Hama, where security forces have reportedly killed 200 people. Photograph: Reuters

[David__77]

1. The West decides which countries are allowed to fight anti-state insurgencies.

Others are condemned for even trying to maintain internal security. They are labelled as "protests," when it involves destroying public infrastructure, erecting roadblocks to inhibit movement, and committing various killings, assaults, arson attacks. "Regime change" is on the menu, quite obviously. But the supranational entities lack the will and means to enforce this.

[Turborama]

2. I will always condemn any state that uses murder & torture against their citizens to maintain power

And my condemnation only gets stronger when they torture and murder children to frighten the citizens into submission.

If anyone doesn't think that's what's going on in Syria then they simply haven't been paying attention.

[Turborama]

3. Report from inside Hama by a Swiss journalist...

There has been a near-total communications blackout in Hama but Gaëtan Vannay, a journalist with Swiss Radio, managed to enter Syria secretly and spent 10 days in the beseiged city. He was there on Sunday when Syrian forces began their attack.

"Until then the demonstrations were absolutely peaceful," he told the Guardian. "They were well-organised, the protesters were always writing new songs, coming up with new slogans against the regime. On the Thursday before the attack there were two speakers with different sound systems entertaining the crowds, playing off one another. It was very festive. On Sunday at 4.30am people gave the alarm, shouting 'Allah u akbar (God is great)'. People lit tyre barricades to make it difficulft for the tanks and fought back with sticks, stones and molotov cocktails. The fighting lasted until around 1pm in the afternoon."

Vannay left Hama on Monday, the day tanks shelled the city's two hospitals.

"They had positioned tanks at three or four places in the city, strategic locations," said Vannay, who saw two tank crews leave their vehicles to join the demonstrators."When I left I met quite a few soldiers and policemen in hiding who said they had been told to kill the population or be killed by the security forces," he said. "Sometimes we would be hiding in the same house."

From the Guardian article in the OP. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/05/syria-hama-massacre-outrage