SYRIA: Regime appears to ignore Turkey; more protesters killed

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a firm message to the regime in Damascus on Wednesday afternoon, urging the increasingly isolated yet defiant President Bashar Assad to order the removal of tanks from the streets, and giving Assad 10 to 15 days to change his ways. 

But many Syrians didn't hold their breath. Rather than heed the call of its larger neighbor to north, Assad had sent tanks into the towns of Dimnish, Taftanaz and Sermin, only miles away from the Syrian border with Turkey, activists told Babylon & Beyond. 

According to the activists, 10,000 soldiers with 32 tanks entered the border area, broke into homes, looted personal belongings and arrested 25 youths. 

"They would break into the house and if they didn't find the fathers or the brothers, they would take the children instead," said Oday Al Sayyed, a member of the Local Coordination Committee in Dimnish.

"I think expanding their offensive along the border is a clear response -- even more a challenge -- to Turkey," Al Sayyed said.  

SYRIA: Assad's security forces increasingly violent [Video]

The camera zooms in on a group of men, walking hand-in-hand to negotiate with the soldiers, black armed figures. The sound of crackling gunfire makes the demonstrators stampede back to safety. What looks like a herd of helpless people run for their lives, and many are shown to be shot down. One man in white drops to the ground before his listless corpse is carried away by two other protesters.

Syrian security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad continue to step up their clampdown on peaceful anti-regime protesters, video shows. A crackdown in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Sunni tribal area of Dair Alzour and the historically restive city of Hama have left many dead and reduced whole neighborhoods to rubble. 

In the above video, hundreds of mourners, some chanting "God is great," are dispersed with direct gunfire. The protesters run for cover. Many refuse to hide, only to be pushed out of danger by their friends. The mourners then bravely regroup, whistling defiantly and jumping in the air waving their hands above their heads, almost to get the attention of the assailants. 

SYRIA: Gloves come off in violent suppression of protests [Videos]

Syrian security forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad have taken the kid gloves off in a no-holds-barred offensive against their own people.

Video footage posted to the Internet on Friday, the first Muslim sabbath during the holy month of Ramadan, is said to show security forces wielding weapons as they scurried through the streets of the restive Damascus suburb of Moadhamiya. 

Parts of the country resembled war zones as armed men loyal to Assad opened fire on peaceful protesters.

In the video clip above, said to have been filmed in the Arbaeen district just outside central Damascus, protesters can be seen ducking for cover amid the sound of gunfire.

Assad and his small coterie of loyalists, backed by the country's Allawite Muslim minority, appear determined to retain their grip on power despite  a burgeoning protest movement that appears to be spreading to all corners of the country week after week. 

In the video below, protesters in the town of Deir Baalbeh, near the city of Homs, are said to be bringing in a badly wounded protester inside what appears to be a mosque as they chant "God is great."

LEBANON: Pro-Assad enforcers attack protesters in Beirut [Video]

Gangs of supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad armed with whips and clubs assaulted a small anti-regime protest in front of the Syrian Embassy in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, leaving several injured. 

According to accounts of the victims, mostly Lebanese activists and members of civil society organizations, gathered in front of the embassy Tuesday night to show support for those killed by Assad's gunmen in the Syrian city of Hama when groups of men began striking them and whipping them with belts.  

In the video above, men and women are heard screaming as they are attacked by men in white button-down shirts, who appear to be lashing at them with unseen objects. 

"It was all planned. They came, started chanting for Bashar and then started getting closer to us," said Saad Kurdi, one of the anti-regime protestors. "We didn't provoke them. As they chanted 'We sacrifice ourselves for you, Bashar,' we chanted over them, 'We sacrifice for you, Syria,' and then they attacked us." 

Demonstrators blamed the Lebanese Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, known for being closely aligned with the increasingly isolated Baathist regime in Damascus, for inciting Syrian laborers around the neighborhood to attack them. Lebanon is home to a large community of Syrians who work in construction and many other blue-collar jobs.

"There were some men who were guiding Syrian laborers towards us, telling them what to do," said Kurdi. 

SYRIA: Ramadan kicks off with tumult and economic hardship [Video]

The holy month of Ramadan, usually a time when streets are bustling with cheery shoppers as they make their purchases throughout the night until the last hours before dawn, has begun on a dreary note in various Syrian towns as shops remain closed and mosques remain empty, residents reported.  

But it appears to also be a time of hope for many Syrians, who wonder whether Ramadan will deliver a knockout blow against the regime of Bashar Assad. 

"We haven't seen days like this in a long time," said a 60-year-old shopkeeper who goes by the honorific Abu Omar. "People don't have money, and they don't want to buy anything. As store owners, we bought many items, and now we don't know how we are going to sell them." 

SYRIA: Videos show Assad regime's bloody pre-Ramadan offensive

Huge clouds of thick, black smoke filled the sky over the central Syrian city of Hama early Sunday, in video posted below, as troops and armed enforcers loyal to President Bashar Assad launched a  military assault on the opposition stronghold, reportedly killing dozens and injuring scores.

Activists and eyewitnesses also say troops and security forces have attacked the eastern city of Dair Alzour, the town of Boukamal near the Iraqi border, an area in the province of Dara, and a suburb of Damascus, among other locales.

 

Below, a clip purportedly showing live rounds being fired on people in the streets of Hama early Sunday.

SYRIA: Video shows armed pro-regime enforcers attacking demonstrators

Dramatic and disturbing video footage from Friday's anti-government protests in Syria against President Bashar Assad, in which Syrian activists say at least 22 people were killed, has emerged on the Internet.

In the clip below, purportedly filmed at a small protest in the southern town of Dara on Friday, a group of people is standing on a road as loud sounds of crackling gunfire are audible in the background.

As the sound of the gunfire intensifies, one young man suddenly falls to ground, apparently hit by a bullet from Assad troops. "He's injured," the cameraman screams as the men in the street hurry to move the wounded person on the ground, apparently bleeding from his head, into safety behind a wall. Then they put him on a motorcycle parked nearby and drive him away.

 

SYRIA: Protesters sweep through eastern city in nightly defiance

A man and his child march hand-in-hand, throw their fists into the air and chant for freedom in the midst of a mass evening protest in the rebellious city of Dair Alzour.

"The doctors and fisherman of Dair Alzour are united in realizing all the needs of the free people of Syria," says a banner at the head of a large after-hours march Monday night, according to YouTube footage. 

Protesters clap in unison to the slogan that has become the catchphrase of the Arab world, "The people want to overthrow the regime."

The shadow of a large Syrian flags engulfs a crowd of protesters, most of whom are in white shirts. 

"I've seen and heard things I thought I'd never see or hear during my lifetime or the lifetime of my children," said one shopkeeper in Dair Alzour who participated in the Monday night demonstration and was later reached by telephone. "It is surreal. Many of us are shocked by our own courage, especially since protesters are being shot dead on a daily basis."

SYRIA: Protesters in Lattakia brave security forces

A tense atmosphere has engulfed the Syrian coastal city of Lattakia as residents cautiously anticipate a crackdown by security forces that have been encircling the city for two months.

As security forces rampage through homes, mosques and neighborhoods, arresting hundreds and keeping families from burying their dead, protesters are taking to the streets, residents told Babylon & Beyond during a recent visit to the seaside city famous as a fount of Levantine cuisine and culture.

Amateur video uploaded on the Lattakia News Network website shows protesters marching through the streets of the city on Sunday, chanting, "For you, Dara, we sacrifice our souls and our blood," in reference to the southern city that sparked the uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad. 

"The streets are completely cut off," said Muhanad, a 24-year-old who asked that his full name not be published. "They don't let anyone come in or out of the city unless they are thoroughly searched. Even the women are not spared this process."

SYRIA: Video purportedly shows militiamen storming mosque

A house of worship reportedly became a scene of violence Friday as pro-President Bashar Assad militiamen stormed the Amena mosque in the country's second-largest city Aleppo after noontime prayers, assaulting and beating people.

And some of it was apparently captured on tape.

The clip below depicts a scene of chaos inside the mosque with people shouting and screaming and trying to escape the indiscriminate violence.

 

But it was a quite a different scene in nearby Hama, where activists in the country's fourth-largest city joined together for an extraordinary show of unity and patriotism directed against Assad's violent regime.

SYRIA: Mass arrests reported ahead of Friday prayers

Troops and militiamen loyal to Syrian leader Bashar Assad appear to be stepping up military operations and mass arrests in a crackdown on anti-regime protesters ahead of Friday prayers, dubbed a day of national unity by organizers.

Syrian activists said Thursday that Assad's troops were shelling neighborhoods in the central city of Homs -- an area where dozens of people reportedly have been killed over the last week-- and that snipers were firing from rooftops.

"The dead and injured inside the houses can still not be reached due to shelling and snipers opening fire on any moving object on the streets," said an activist network, the Local Coordination Committees in Syria.

Mass arrests were also reported in certain neighborhoods of Homs as detentions across the country appear to have intensified.

According to U.S.-based watchdog Human Rights Watch, more than 2,000 people have been arrested in Syria during the past month. They included demonstrators, medical workers who have treated injured protesters, and individuals who allegedly have disseminated information to media organizations, according to new research published by the organization Wednesday.

In total, about 15,000 detainees linked to the four-month-long uprising are in Syrian jails, a representative from the coordination committees told Babylon & Beyond. Tens of thousands more, added the spokesman, have been temporarily detained in the uprising against Assad that began in mid-March.

ISRAEL: Benjamin Netanyahu's first interview on Arab network

"Everything is on the table; we just need to get to the table," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Al Arabiya TV in an exclusive interview airing Thursday evening.

According to advance excerpts from the 30-minute interview, the Israeli leader answered questions on a wide range of issues, including the peace process and regional regime changes.

It was Netanyahu's first appearance on an Arab television outlet.

Why now?...