The situation in Syria is reaching boiling point quickly and confirms our previous perspective that the regime is on its way to being overthrown. Last Friday, The Friday of the Children of Syria, saw a qualitative change in the revolutionary movement.
The previous ugly killing of the 13 year old Hamzeh must have affected the masses in some major ways. The numbers on Friday were overwhelming. Hama, a city in central north Syria saw more than a 100,000 demonstrators out on the streets. The security forces were stunned and had no answer but to open fire on the demonstration, tens were left dead and hundreds wounded. In The province of Idleb, similar numbers were seen where demonstrators from different towns and villages all met in the city of Ma'arat Al-Noman.
The eastern provinces where a big portion of the economy is based also saw unprecedented movement of thousands in Der Al-zor, Mayadeen and Bu Kamal and their surrounding towns and villages. Protesters in Der Al-Zors were very defiant and fought the security forces till late in the night trying to maintain their positions. Also a number of Martyrs fell in the city. In Homs, the demonstrations were big as usual. In Damascus, an activist on the ground informed us that the numbers of protesters were at least10 times greater than those of the Friday before. Demonstrators in Damascus were also quite defiant and would not allow themselves to be dispersed easily. That was particularly the situation in the Qaboon neighbourhood and in Barzeh where security opened fire on demonstrators and at least three were killed.
In Aleppo, the city that has been very slow to move, significant action was seen with big numbers in the Salah Al-Deen neighbourhood and there are reports that protesters fought the security for many hours before getting dispersed. Even In Dar'aa, the city under siege for many weeks now, people demonstrated and defied the police. By the end of the day there were more than 200 deaths and many hundreds injured, mostly in Hama. The next day the crazed security forces attacked the areas where the numbers were big, especially Jisr Al-Shigour in Idleb Province even using helicopters and tanks. Demonstrations also continued in many areas of the country and especially in the Eastern parts in Der Al-Zour, Mayadeen and Bu Kama where protesters are very angry and defiant.
The situation is really coming to a head; people are very angry and the regime has lost most of its legitimacy. The next days are going to be very heated and possibly very bloody. The activists on the ground are becoming more organized and they issued a joint statement recently outlining their perspective. This is an interesting development as it shows that some sort of a skeleton has been formed for the movement. Things are really heated and can explode at any moment and this coming Friday will no doubt be very big and important.