SYRIAN UNREST IN MAY
Alleged Iranian involvementU.S. president Barack Obama accused Iran of secretly aiding Bashar al-Assad in his efforts to quell the protests.[156] U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice has stated that there is evidence of active Iranian support for the Syrian government's crackdown on demonstrators.[157] Iran has denied any involvement in suppressing the protests.[158]
Baniyas was divided on 1 May into zones of de facto control, with protesters largely controlling the south and security forces enforcing the laws of the government in the north.
On 6 May, after Friday noon prayers, demonstrators rose in cities and towns across Syria to protest the regime. Video and audio of security forces responding, in some cases with lethal force, appeared online within an hour of protests beginning. 11 members of the Syrian army were killed by an armed group in Homs, as a result of an armed attack on a military checkpoint.[159] At least three dead and 20 injured were reported in Homs alone, with a total of 12 dead between Homs and Hama, and opposition leaders Mouaz al-Khatib and Riad Seif were detained allegedly by secret police. Tens of thousands reportedly marched in Damascus and its suburbs, and about 7,000 protesters wearing funeral shrouds and carrying olive branches and flowers gathered in Baniyas, vowing to "meet the army peacefully", according to Al Jazeera, whose Arabic-language channel broadcast live from the city for some minutes. Several thousand Syrians participated in a protest march to the vicinity of Deraa, but security forces maintaining a siege of the city refused to let them enter with supplies for its inhabitants.
Following this "Day of Defiance", Amnesty International reported that activists Razan Zaitouneh, Wa’el Hammada, Haytham al-Maleh, Hind al-Labwani, Omar al-Labwani, Jwan Yousef Khorshid, Walid al-Bunni and Suheir al-Atassi had been forced to go into hiding
One child, a 12-year-old boy, was killed during a government crackdown in Homs on 8 May, and another child, a 10-year-old boy, was arrested, anti-government activists claimed.
Alleged Iranian involvementU.S. president Barack Obama accused Iran of secretly aiding Bashar al-Assad in his efforts to quell the protests.[156] U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice has stated that there is evidence of active Iranian support for the Syrian government's crackdown on demonstrators.[157] Iran has denied any involvement in suppressing the protests.[158]
Baniyas was divided on 1 May into zones of de facto control, with protesters largely controlling the south and security forces enforcing the laws of the government in the north.
On 6 May, after Friday noon prayers, demonstrators rose in cities and towns across Syria to protest the regime. Video and audio of security forces responding, in some cases with lethal force, appeared online within an hour of protests beginning. 11 members of the Syrian army were killed by an armed group in Homs, as a result of an armed attack on a military checkpoint.[159] At least three dead and 20 injured were reported in Homs alone, with a total of 12 dead between Homs and Hama, and opposition leaders Mouaz al-Khatib and Riad Seif were detained allegedly by secret police. Tens of thousands reportedly marched in Damascus and its suburbs, and about 7,000 protesters wearing funeral shrouds and carrying olive branches and flowers gathered in Baniyas, vowing to "meet the army peacefully", according to Al Jazeera, whose Arabic-language channel broadcast live from the city for some minutes. Several thousand Syrians participated in a protest march to the vicinity of Deraa, but security forces maintaining a siege of the city refused to let them enter with supplies for its inhabitants.
Following this "Day of Defiance", Amnesty International reported that activists Razan Zaitouneh, Wa’el Hammada, Haytham al-Maleh, Hind al-Labwani, Omar al-Labwani, Jwan Yousef Khorshid, Walid al-Bunni and Suheir al-Atassi had been forced to go into hiding
One child, a 12-year-old boy, was killed during a government crackdown in Homs on 8 May, and another child, a 10-year-old boy, was arrested, anti-government activists claimed.
