Syria updateSyria intensifies its repression campaign
The government of Basher al-Assad has intensified its campaign to suppress the anti-government protests that have challenged the regime. The number of civilians killed by the security forces has risen to 560, with the number of people injured by the live rounds the military is using against the protesters reaching thousands; over the weekend, the government has also launched a campaign of mass arrests
Funerals often lead to further violence // Source: ruvr.ru
The government of Basher al-Assad has intensified its campaign to suppress the anti-government protests that have challenged the regime. The number of civilians killed by the security forces has risen to 560, with the number of people injured by the live rounds the military is using against the protesters reaching thousands.
In the last two days, the Syrian security forces have also began mass arrests of people suspected of being sympathetic to the protesters. The BBC reports that in the city of Deraa, where the protests began on 15 March, the security forces arrested 499 people and carted them off to detention centers.
Since Friday, the security forces have killed more than seventy people in Derra.
Derra citizens told Reuters that all of those arrested were men between the ages of 15 and 45.
The government, for its part, says that more than eighty soldiers and security services personnel have been killed by the protesters and what the government refers to as “external forces.”
AFP reports that the government also set a deadline of 15 May for people who have committed “unlawful acts” to turn themselves in.
The United States last week blocked the assets of a number of top Syrian officials as well as Assad’s brother, Maher, who commands the Syrian army’s feared Fourth Division.
