Monitors: Violent Clashes Erupt in Damascus
Fierce fighting between regime troops and armed rebels rocked parts of the Syrian capital Damascus overnight, a monitoring group said on Sunday.
"Violent clashes broke out between rebel fighters and regime troops at a checkpoint in Kafr Sousa district," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.
There were no immediate details on casualties, the Britain-based watchdog added.
The Local Coordination Committees, an anti-regime network of activists on the ground in Syria, said that in the wake of the fighting, Kafr Sousa saw the "arrival of huge reinforcements" of regime troops.
Clashes also broke out in the south of the capital, the Observatory said, adding that gunfire had during the night echoed across the city center.
"Gunfire was heard in Abbasiyyin Square, and Baghdad and Thawra streets," said the monitor, referring to high-security areas of the city.
Meanwhile, regime forces shelled the outskirts of Douma, a bastion of anti-regime sentiment located near Damascus.
On Saturday, 23 people were killed in violence across Syria, the Observatory said.
More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died in Syria since an anti-regime revolt broke out in March last year, according to the monitoring group.
almost 12 years
I guess things in Syria seem to be moving a little faster than expected. Yesterday Halab and today Damascus. Plus the behavior of the regime with the letter to the UN is bizarre, it reflects more a desperate act rather than a rational behavior. It seems that the regime is not only loosing ground and control in Syria very fast, but also loosing grasp on the situation and how to deal with it.
almost 12 years
(1/2)@Mowaten: If history is anything we can take projections from, the middle class were the last to enter any political revolution. Halab and Damascus is where the middle class lives, and this is the epicenter of the Syrian economy. If I personally were in Syria, I would not care about any revolution, I would care about keeping my business running and being able to pay my employees' salaries and keeping food on everyone's table. I don't support Assad, absolutely not, but I would not join the revolution myself. But that's only a personal choice. Middle class commonly have bigger responsibilities, tighter margins for accepting losses, and as such have the most to loose. Doris Goodwin (who's considered one of the best historians in modern times) wrote a series of essays on the role of middle class in political revolutions in history and clearly reflects the behavior we're seeing today in Damascus and Halab.
almost 12 years
(2/2)However the evolution is clear in the Syrian situation and now we see not only the protests but the fact that the rebels are becoming bolder and we are hearing about activity taking place in Damascus and Halab. Saying Assad is going to fall is not wishful thinking. Nobody can survive this. Just like the Russian envoy to the UN said to put it mildly: "No one is expecting Assad to stay in power for the next 10 years".
almost 12 years
To be fair Mowaten, popular revolutions did fail in the past, but only a handful of times (12 out of 678 to be exact), here is the list:
150-154 BC: The failed Rebellion of the Seven States in China
73–71 BC: The failed Roman slave rebellion
762: Muhammad ibn Abdallah failed rebellion in Medina
828: The failed rebellion by Kim Heon-chang against Silla.
1798: The failed Irish Rebellion
1827–1828: The failed rebellion in Mexico
1857: The failed Indian rebellion against the British
1905: The failed Russian revolution against Tsar Nicholas II
1918–1922: The failed Third Russian Revolution
1956: The failed Hungarian Revolution
1959: The failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule
2004: The failed popular revolution of Azerbaijan
But history is rarely ever a tool to predict future with. I would not put money that Assad is going to make that list of surviving a revoultion.
almost 12 years
You want them to line up and get shot?
Al-Jazeera cites rebel leaders as saying that a special team of the Free Syrian Army kills Defense Minister Rajiha and head of military intelligence Shawkat.