Syrian Forces Hit Protest Hub

By A WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER in Damascus and NOUR MALAS in Antalya, Turkey

Syrian forces using tanks and machine guns pressed into towns outside Homs, the country’s third-largest city, in an apparent effort to shut down the area’s broad-based opposition movement, as activists meeting in Turkey drafted a road map for their effort to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

At least 25 people were killed by security forces Thursday in Rastan, north of Homs, according to activists and Homs residents with family members in the town, continuing what has been one of the deadliest crackdowns by the regime since the start of the uprising three months ago.

Rastan and the nearby town of Talbiseh have been scenes of large and sustained protests in recent weeks, as powerful tribal and merchant clans in the region have thrown their weight behind the opposition movement.

Residents have also reported incidents in which protesters in the region have fought back against security forces and members of Mr. Assad’s ruling Alawite ethnic minority, which has been the subject of growing resentment from the Sunni majority around Homs.

Many residents in the area own guns, which are easily smuggled over the border from Lebanon. The area is also home to tribal families with codes that dictate that the spilling of blood must be avenged, raising the potential that opponents of the regime will take up arms.

Ethnic tensions in the area were stirred in late April, when tanks belonging to predominantly Alawite army brigades moved into Sunni neighborhoods of Homs.

Unrest in Syria

Despite the rising death toll from weeks of unrest, people across Syria continue to protest the government of President Bashar al-Assad. See events by day.

Residents said armed Alawite gangs backing the Assad regime set up checkpoints in their neighborhoods, helped crack down on protests and ransacked houses in restive areas.

In one incident, on May 20—a day of nationwide protests in which at least 11 people were killed in Homs—a fight broke out between adjacent Alawite and Sunni neighborhoods, a resident said.

A resident of Deir Baalbe, a poor area close to the Alawite-majority district of al-Zahara, said tensions between the two groups were rising.

“We look next door and see people with jobs and decent services, whilst in our area we have nothing,” he said.

Homs residents say armed clashes with supporters of the Assad regime have been limited, and have grown out of opposition to the government, not to the dominant sect.

“The people on the streets of Homs don’t have a problem with spilled blood anymore,” a resident said. “In some cases they’re instigating the security forces because they’re tired and they’re angry and they’re fed up.”

Syria’s government—echoed by many Syrians and supporters of the regime—has often pointed to neighboring Iraq as an example of what they say is the kind of violent, sectarian power struggle that could break out if the Assad regime were to fall.

Tanks moved to surround several towns around Homs Saturday night, activists and residents said, in what has become the Syrian regime’s standard procedure for dealing with towns with large protest movements.

Communications, electricity and water were cut, before soldiers and security forces carried out shootings and ransacked houses, residents said.

The death toll since security forces began a siege in the area Sunday has risen to more than 70, according to the Local Coordinating Committees, a nationwide activist network that tallies only victims who have been identified by name.

Meanwhile, Syrian opposition groups meeting in Turkey drafted a statement calling on President Assad to step down and hand over power temporarily to the vice president until a transitional council is formed and a new constitution drafted.

They also laid the groundwork for a plan to support protesters working toward that goal.

At the conference, in the Turkish coastal town of Antalya, some 300 activists elected representatives who would name a nine-member committee to implement a support strategy for the protesters.

Attendees also committed more than $200,000 to finance the protests and pay compensation to families of those killed during the uprising.

Of the more 300 activists attending, almost all were supporting the movement from outside the country. Only one or two dozen attendees were Syria-based organizers.

The group has yet to bridge the divide between younger, street protesters and older, exiled opposition activists trying to create a political alternative to Mr. Assad, observers said.

via Syrian Forces Hit Protest Hub – WSJ.com.