Blast rocks Syrian city as opposition plans Sunday rallies

[maddezmom]

Last edited Sun Mar 18, 2012, 09:00 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: AP

BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian opposition groups are calling for protests Sunday in the capital Damascus and elsewhere to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the first nationwide demonstrations of the country's uprising.

Many activists consider March 18, 2011, the start of the uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad. On that day, thousands took to the streets in cities across Syria, and security forces killed marchers in the southern city of Daraa.

Since then protests have spread and many in the opposition have taken up arms to defend themselves and attack government forces as the conflict has grown more militarized

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On Sunday, Syria's state news agency said an explosion went off between two residential buildings in the northern city of Aleppo.The report gave no information on casualties or damage, but called it a "terrorist bombing."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-03-17/damascus-syria-bombs/53582656/1

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Car bomb hits Aleppo; police crush Damascus march

BEIRUT | Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:24am EDT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb hit Syria's second city Aleppo on Sunday, a day after blasts killed 27 in Damascus, and security forces arrested and beat activists at a rare anti-government protest in the capital.
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In the capital, as crowds gathered for memorials to victims of Saturday's car bombs, security forces broke up an opposition march of more than 200 people when protesters began shouting "the people want to topple the regime".

The phrase has echoed through the wave of Arab uprisings that began last year and has toppled autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

"They were walking through an area in central Damascus, near SANA (the state news agency). At first they shouted slogans against violence and the police didn't do anything, but as soon as they started to call for regime change the police rushed in and started beating people with canes," said Rami Abdelrahman, from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/18/us-syria-idUSBRE8280G820120318

[Tobin S.]

1. The conflict in Syria is one of those deals where I think something should be done

from the outside but I don't know what.

[Alamuti Lotus]

2. something is already being done from the outside

the so-called "Free Syrian Army" and "Syrian National Council" (the former dominated by salafist militants and the latter a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood) are being armed and funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars every month ($85-$100mil, per recent reports) by American assets in the region, the Saudi & Qatari Wahhabi dynasties (who are, incidentally, also giving lessons on democracy). The "rebel armies" have battalions named after Saudi kings, a Lebanese billionaire robber-baron, and Qatari government ministers, in addition to nearly every Salafi/Wahhabi hero that's ever written an extremist manifesto. NATO's Libyan militias and other foreign mercenaries are also reported to be represented in fighting the government on the ground. They're getting outside shipments of guns to shoot security forces, and explosives to blow up civilians, with Western governments directing traffic and lining up to do business with them once they overthrow the Assad dictatorship and continue to slaughter any Alawites, Christians, Druzes, socialists, and any other troublesome minority that may get in the way of US/Saudi plans for the region. I'd say enough is already being done from the outside, but then again I also don't believe for a second the plots that hide behind the public relations facade of "humanitarian interventions" being peddled by the forces of arrogance these days.