Escalation in Egypt

[GRG55]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

My second guess would be Syria...

Once again, as I pointed out two years ago regards Egypt, these things never happen in the "obvious" places...

Syrian forces raid homes, Assad opposition mounts

Sun Apr 24, 2011 6:17am EDT

AMMAN (Reuters) - Secret police raided homes near Damascus overnight, rights campaigners said on Sunday, as popular opposition to Syria's authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad increased following bloody attacks on pro-democracy protesters.

Security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad have killed at least 112 people over the last two days. They fired at protesters demanding political freedoms and an end to corruption on Friday and on mass funerals for victims a day later.

The attacks were the bloodiest, and the demonstrations the biggest, since protests erupted in the southern city of Deraa near the border with Jordan over five weeks ago...

...Assad assumed power when his father died in 2000 after ruling Syria for 30 years. The hostile chants reflect a steady hardening of the demands of protesters who first called for greater freedoms but now seek his overthrow...

...The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said prominent rights activist Daniel Saud, a resident of the Mediterranean city of Banias, was also arrested on Saturday.

The weekend protests stretched from the port city of Latakia to Homs, Hama, Damascus, its suburbs and southern towns. The death toll rose to around 350, with scores of missing since the demonstrations broke out on March 18...

[GRG55]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

...As for desperate acts, the game being played here is that long standing, corrupt leaders the world over always want to install a successor that is loyal to them. That is the way they try to avoid having their unsavoury past revealed, or worse being put on trial in their own country after leaving office. The alternative for the Mubaraks of this world is exile to avoid that fate...

Yemen’s Saleh May Quit in Swap for Immunity, Official Says

April 24, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to a plan brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council that would give him immunity in exchange for ceding power, a government official said.

Saleh would transfer power to a deputy within 30 days and hold elections 60 days after that, Tarik al-Shami, spokesman at the ruling General People’s Congress, said in a phone interview yesterday. The opposition must end its protests, accept immunity for Saleh and his aides and agree to all other terms of the GCC plan...

[GRG55]

Re: Escalation in Egypt

My second guess would be Syria...

Once again, as I pointed out two years ago regards Egypt, these things never happen in the "obvious" places...

On the one hand there are numerous rulers feeling threatened in the Middle East that would like to see Assad and the Syrian military succeed in putting a stop to this process of the toppling of regime after regime. On the other hand, the brutality necessary to achieve that is beyond what even the heavily conflicted Arab League can be seen to be tolerating.

I had expected the unbelievably brutal regime in Iran [Saddam ran a kindergarten compared to the mullahs next door] to become another flashpoint, partly because of the long deteriorating situation on its borders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But so far the situation seems to have confined itself largely to the Arab world.

Dozens of bodies dumped in flashpoint Syrian city, activist group says

Associated Press
Updated: Tuesday, December 6, 3:26 AM


BEIRUT — A surge in violence in the restive Syrian city of Homs has killed up to 50 people in the past 24 hours, leaving dozens of bodies in the streets, activists said Tuesday.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited witnesses as saying 34 bodies were dumped in the streets of Homs on Monday night. Homs-based activist Mohammed Saleh said there was a spate of kidnappings and killings in the city earlier Monday...

...For nearly nine months, the Syrian government has been trying to crush an uprising against President Bashar Assad. But there are growing signs of an armed insurgency and mounting sectarian tensions that could push the country toward civil war.

Homs has emerged as the epicenter of the uprising, and the government has laid siege to the city for months.

On Monday, Syria said it would agree to allow Arab League observers into the country as part of a plan to end the bloodshed, but placed a number of conditions, including the cancellation of deeply embarrassing economic sanctions by the 22-member organization.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby swiftly rebuffed Damascus’ demands...

...Syria has already failed to meet several Arab League ultimatums to end the crackdown which the U.N. says has killed more than 4,000 people since the uprising against Assad erupted in March...