Violence in Syria as Arab League tours
As the Arab League tours Syria to assess whether the regime’s violent nine-month crackdown against protesters has ended, violence flares up across the country.
Syrian opposition leaders said that government forces have opened fire on protesters in two major cities, killing at least nineteen people, including three children.
In Hama, there are reports that at least seven people have been wounded after security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse a protest against President Bashar al-Assad.
The violence came just a day ahead of the Arab League’s visit to the city and coincides with incidents in Homs and a village near Deraa in the south.
Pictures on Al Jazeera showed gunfire and black smoke rising above a street in Hama as dozens of protesters chanted: “Where are the Arab monitors?”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the protesters were heading towards Orontes square in the city centre for a sit-in at the symbolic location where demonstrations were crushed earlier this year.
There is no turning back from the revolution. Protesters in Hama
The Al Jazeera footage does not show the security forces but unarmed protesters, some masked, were heard shouting: “Assad forces are shooting us.” The protesters then began chanting: “Freedom for ever” and “We will have our revenge on you Bashar”, as well as “There is no turning back from the revolution”.
Hama has particular resonance for Syrians as the location for the country’s biggest massacre in modern history, when troops loyal to President Assad’s father, Hafez, killed up to 30,000 people. It has also been a flashpoint in this year’s violence, with tanks attacking the city for ten days in August and provoking international outrage.
More from Channel 4 News: Inside Syria
Outbursts across Syria
Verifying the details of the latest incidents remains impossible because most foreign media are banned from Syria.
The same applies for dramatic YouTube footage, pictured above left, which has emerged and appears to show rebel fighters firing at a convoy of government security vehicles in the village of Dael, near Deraa.
The unrest follows the arrival of the Arab League monitors, who began their tour in Homs on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they went to a flashpoint area in the city of Homs but some of their planned tour was blocked when gunfire erupted, activists said.
In the same city they were also shown the body of a young boy, paraded as a sign, the rebels say, that the regime will stop at nothing.
The clashes continued despite an apparent gesture of goodwill by the state – Syrian TV announced earlier the release of 755 prisoners detained in the government crackdown. But the rebels remain defiant – and the presence of the Arab League so far seems unable to halt Syria’s slide into a bloody civil war.
