Syria Live Blog - May 6

Syria Live Blog - May 6

Thousands continue to take to the streets across Syria, despite reform pledges by President Bashar al-Assad. Activists say hundreds have been killed by security forces. We bring you the latest news from various sources.

• Timestamp: 

  10:41pm

  The United States said Friday it is seeking diplomatic access to Al Jazeera's Dorothy Parvaz, who was detained by Syrian authorities last Friday.
  
  "We are certainly aware of the case of this detained American journalist  for Al Jazeera," Mark Toner, a spokesperson for the US state department, told reporters, adding Washington is "concerned" about her case.
  
  "And we've asked for, obviously, given that she's an American citizen, for consular access," Toner added.

• Timestamp: 

  10:28pm

  Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr's report on how today's 'day of defiance' ended in bloodshed. It contains amateur video footage which cannot be independently verified:

• Timestamp: 

  8:59pm

  Britain, France and Germany are again pressing for the UN Security Council to respond to the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protesters.
  
  Last week, the deeply divided council failed to agree on a European- and US-backed statement condemning Syrian violence against peaceful protesters, with Russia saying security forces were also killed and the actions don't threaten international peace.

  Gerard Araud, France's UN ambassador, said diplomats from the three countries raised the "very worrying" situation in Syria during closed-door discussions Friday on the political vacuum in Lebanon.
  
  Terje Roed-Larsen, a U.N. envoy for Lebanon, said what he thought was "a looming storm" has become "a mega-hurricane" that is unpredictable and has not only regional but also global implications.

• Timestamp: 

  8:53pm

  Amnesty International, the international human rights organistation, has learned of several prominent human rights and political activists who have recently been forced into hiding.

  Given recent events, Syrian human rights and political activists have cause to fear for their lives and liberty, and a number have gone into hiding after receiving threats.

  Philip Luther, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement emailed to Al Jazeera.

  Syrian security forces have killed hundreds and arrested many more during and after protests. This campaign of violence and intimidation must cease and human rights defenders must be allowed to carry on their work without fear for their personal safety.

  Those targeted include the human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh and her husband Wa'el Hammada; Haytham al-Maleh; Hind and Omar al-Labwani; Jwan Yousef Khorshid; Walid al-Bunni; and Suheir al-Atassi, Amnesty said.

• Timestamp: 

  8:42pm

  Here is a video mentioned below of Al Jazeera's interview with Reem Haddad, a spokeperson for the Syrian information ministry, in which she denied knowledge of any protesters were killed, and Dorothy Parvaz's arrest:

• Timestamp: 

  7:57pm

  The latest on the running death toll from the protests today:

  Security forces fired on demonstrators in the central Syrian cities of Homs and Hama Friday, killing at least 13 people, rights activists there said, AFP is reporting.
  
  At the same time, an officer and four policemen were killed by armed groups in Homs, state news agency SANA said.
  
  "Eight people were killed and several others gravely wounded by firing from the security forces on a demonstration" in the central city of Homs, an activist there said.
  
  In Hama, also north of the capital, another five demonstrators were killed, another activist said.
  
  Meanwhile, SANA said an "armed criminal group" opened fire fired on a joint army-police-security forces checkpoint in Baba Amr in Homs, killing an officer and four policemen."
  
  The agency said the bodies of those killed were then "mutilated" by their assailants.
  
  Earlier, activist Najati Tayara had said security forces opened fire to disperse protests that broke out in Homs after weekly Muslim prayers, and that five people were killed.

• Timestamp: 

  7:46pm

  This video, again difficult to verify, shows what appears to be a sniper shooting from a rooftop and sandbags on the street:

• Timestamp: 

  7:40pm

  This video from Homs appears to show people being shot fromb behind. Al Jazeera is unable to verify its contents:

   

• Timestamp: 

  7:20pm

  Malath Aumran, a Syrian activist in Beirut interviewed by Al Jazeera earlier today, has posted this picture received from Baniyas today.

  

• Timestamp: 

  7:19pm

  The cyberactivist group Anonymous has launched another round of attacks against Syrian government websites. Anons said on Twitter that the attacks, dubbed #OpSyria, are for "Great Justice" and to demand the release of imprisoned Al Jazeera journalist Dorothy Parvaz.
  
  At the time of writing, Al Jazeera verified that both the site for the Syrian interior ministry and an unidentified website had been taken offline by "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks.
  
  Anon activists have used the internet to show their support for popular uprisings in the Arab world since #OpTunisia, as Al Jazeera reported in early January.

• Timestamp: 

  7:03pm

  Syrian secret police have arrested Mouaz al-Khatib, a prominent Damascene preacher and major figure in Syria's pro-democracy uprising, human rights campaigners said on Friday.
  
  "Political Security called Sheikh Mouaz at 11pm on Thursday. They politely asked him to come in for five minutes. He told them he was ill but they insisted. He went and we did not hear from him since," a colleague of Khatib told Reuters.
  
  Khatib, head of the independent Islamic Civilization Society, is seen as an enlightened religious figure. He had assured Syria's minorities that the diversity of the country would be respected if President Bashar al-Assad falls.
  
  "We call for freedom for every person. For every Sunni, Alawite, Ismaili and Christian, whether Arab or a member of the great Kurdish nation," Khatib told protesters last month, with opposition figures Aref Dalila, an Alawite, and Michel Kilo, a Christian, at his side.

• Timestamp: 

  6:54pm

  Syrian security forces shot dead six demonstrators in Hama when they fired on pro-democracy demonstration on Friday, a human rights campaigner in the city told Reuters.
  
  "They killed one protester when the demonstration began at the Orontes Square. Demonstrators re-assembled in al-Hader [the old quarters] and another five fell there," said the campaigner, who asked not to be identified.
  
  During the rule of President Hafez al-Assad, father of current president, Syrian forces razed the old quarter of Hama in an attack in 1982 to crush an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood. Up to 30,000 people were killed.

• Timestamp: 

  6:36pm

  Army units and security forces have clashed in Homs, two eyewitnesses have told Al Jazeera.
  
  After security forces opened fire earlier today on tens of thousands of protesters the crowd ran for cover, some seeking shelter behind army vehicles, one eyewitness said.
  
  "Then the security started shooting at the vehicles - at both the army and the protesters, and the army shot back," he said.
  
  Both eyewitnesses confirm that the shooting is ongoing and taking place in Bab Draib and Baba Amr.
  
  Residents of Homs have formed a human shield around the main hospital in Bab al-Sebah where many wounded protesters have been taken, said one eyewitness.
  
  Al Jazeera has no means of verifying the claims.

• Timestamp: 

  6:24pm

  In the same interview mentioned below, Reem Haddad told Al Jazeera that she knew nothing about the detention of our colleague, Dorothy Parvaz.
  
  "I have no idea whether Dorothy Parvaz is being held in Syria," she said, refusing to comment on the confirmation Al Jazeera received earlier this week that the journalist had been arrested.
  
  Parvaz arrived in Damascus one week ago today, on a flight from Doha at 3:30pm. Al Jazeera and her family has not heard from her since she left Qatar.
  
  Visit the "Free Dorothy" Facebook page or use the #FreeDorothy hashtag on Twitter to demand her immediate release.

• Timestamp: 

  6:19pm

  Reem Haddad, a spokesperson for the Syrian information ministry, denied in a phone interview with Al Jazeera that she had any knowledge that Syrian protesters had been killed today.
  
  "I would like to tell you if you give me the names," she said.
  
  She said the UN delegation which will be visiting Syria to investigate allegations would be a positive thing for the government.
  
  "The Syrian government is not worried, because there is nothing wrong," the spokesperson said.
  
  "Syria is a mosaic, it is made of many different sects living together, in harmony."
  
  She denied any knowledge of the arrest of Riad Seif, member of parliament and leading opposition activist.

• Timestamp: 

  6:17pm

  Supporters of the anti-government protesters in Syria kicking out a supporter of Assad from a mosque during a Friday prayers sermon, in Sidon, southern Lebanon (photo by Reuters):

  

• Timestamp: 

  5:48pm

  As Al Jazeera and other foreign media have been barred from entering Syria to report, we rely to a large extent on material anti-government activists and ordinary Syrians are posting on the internet.

  Demonstrations in support of the government are also being held, and this video posted by the Damascus News Network shows people cheering the army and chanting the typical pro-Assad slogan "Bashar, Syria, God, only" as tanks left Deraa yesterday.

• Timestamp: 

  5:54pm

  Around 2,000 protesters defied a heavy security presence and snipers on roof tops to gather in Zabadani, a mountain town 45km north-west of Damascus, before security forces fired tear gas and beat the protesters with sticks, an eyewitness told Al Jazeera.
  
  "The protesters chanted they want to topple the regime and to end the siege of Deraa," the eyewitness said.
  
  Several hundred security personnel were deployed in the town, arresting protesters, particularly any caught filming, said the eyewitness. Over the past week, he said, 28 protestors from Zabadani had been released from prison all showing signs of torture.
  
  "But as the arrests increase our anger increases," he said "We are no longer afraid."
  
  Three checkpoints have been set up between Zabadani and Damascus, with travelers forced to show identification papers to the military and secret police.

  There would have been more protesters if surrounding villages had been able to join, but they were stopped at the check points surrounding Zabadani. The city is under siege.

• Timestamp: 

  5:45pm

  The European Union has agreed to impose sanctions on 14 Syrian officials involved in the regime's savage crackdown on protests, diplomats told the AFP news agency.
  
  EU ambassadors will look at further talks next Monday on whether to also target Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, with an assets freeze and travel ban, the sources added.
  
  The 27 ambassadors met to fine-tune a range of punitive measures, including an arms embargo and a suspension of aid to Syria.

• Timestamp: 

  5:32pm

  More on the solidarity protests in the northern Jordanian town of Ramtha.

  Jameel Nemri, a Jordanian parliamentarian, told the hundreds of protesters, Reuters reported:

  We tell people of Deraa that you deserve more support. We tell you we are with you. You are heroes. You are turning into martyrs for a just cause. Against insult, repression and humiliation. Your revolution is blessed. We are behind you. Courage is patience. We cannot accept to see shoes crushing heads of the people. The people have the right to live in freedom and dignity. The regime must understand that. They must stop the repression.

• Timestamp: 

  5:25pm

  Lebanese Salafists carrying placards against the Syrian government's violent crackdown on protests in Deraa demonstrated after noon prayers in the southern Lebanese port of Sidon. Their placard read: "Stop the bloodshed", "No for repression", and "No for the implication of Lebanon".

  The Syrian government has blamed unrest in Syria on an armed groups belonging to Salafist organisations.

  
  Photo: AFP

• Timestamp: 

  5:20pm

  AP quotes UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as saying Syria has agreed to allow UN teams to enter the country and check the humanitarian situation there.

• Timestamp: 

  5:10pm

   

  Syria's authorities think that they can beat and kill their way out of the crisis. But with every illegal arrest, every killing of a protester, they are precipitating a larger crisis.

  Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, as quoted by the Reuters news agency.

• Timestamp: 

  4:56pm

  Riad Seif, a member of parliament and leading opposition activist who was arrested in the Midan district of Damascus today (see below), pictured in 2001:

  

• Timestamp: 

  4:39pm

  Security forces have opened fire on a large protest of tens of thousands in the central city of Homs, according to an eyewitness.
  
  "We were chanting, 'The people and the army are one' and 'The people want to topple the regime.' Then security and thugs opened fire," said the eyewitness.
  
  The sound of continuous gunfire was audible over the phone, as were the cries of people warning that there were snipers on the roof tops.
  
  Tens of thousands of protesters had gathered by the Grand Mosque after Friday prayers and began to march towards Bab Draib Square, said the eyewitness. Security forces had also opened fire on protestors in Bab Omar street, he said.
  
  Security personnel had closed most streets in Homs since Thursday and had been driving around calling protesters to surrender in order to obtain amnesty, said the eyewitness.
  
  In a statement last Sunday the Interior Ministry offered an amnesty until May 15 for citizens caught up in the revolt to hand themselves in.
  
  The eyewitness said three tanks and five armoured personnel carriers had taken up positions in central Homs.
  
  "They are there to strike terror into people," he said.
  
  Five people were reported killed.

• Timestamp: 

  4:27pm

  Thousands of villagers from southern Syrian towns have converged on a town near the city of Deraa, chanting slogans demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, two witnesses tell Reuters.

  They said villagers, prevented from entering Deraa, which remains encircled by tanks after it was stormed
  nearly two weeks ago, flocked to Tafas, 12km to the northwest.

  Protesters were gathering in a square near the old mosque, carrying placards with the word "leave."

• Timestamp: 

  4:23pm

  An eyewitness in Homs tells Al Jazeera that three people have been killed and 20 injured after security forces opened fire on protesters today.

  He estimated the protest at between 40,000 to 50,000, a figure which cannot be confirmed, and said some protesters had tried to shelter behind army units deployed in Bab Sbaa and Bab Draib after plain clothes security opened fire from the street and rooftops.  

  
  

  This video purportedly shows snipers on a roof top in the city.

   

• Timestamp: 

  4:15pm

  Around 7,000 protesters have gathered in the centre of Baniyas wearing funeral shrouds and carrying olive branches and flowers.
  
  "We want to meet the army peacefully," an eyewitness told Al Jazeera.
  
  The protesters have been joined by people from surrounding villages and are calling for the regime to end the siege of Deraa, release political prisoners and end arbitrary arrests.
  
  "There are women, men, children and the elderly here, people from all sects," he said. "The regime said we would kill the army: This is not true."
  
  Landlines, the internet and electricity services have been limited today, he said, in an apparent attempt by the regime to stop protestors uploading videos from the city. Security forces have not yet intervened to stop the protest with residents trying to block snipers from accessing rooftops in the city, he said.

  We are here today to say we don't want to die. We don’t want to be humiliated and we will never stop. Killing us and invading us with tanks will never stop us. Our souls will ascend to heaven calling for freedom.

• Timestamp: 

  4:07pm

  Jumana Seif, the daughter of opposition leader Riad Seif, tells Al Jazeera that her father was arrested earlier today.

  "Around 1.30pm someone told me that my father was arrested from al-Hassan mosque. A friend told me later that he was hit on his head by the security elements.

  She said Riad had been attending rallies in Midan every Friday since the rallies began.

  "We have no information" about his whereabouts, she said, adding that her family was concerned about his well-being as he is suffering from a heart condition and prostate cancer and needs medication.

• Timestamp: 

  3:30pm

  This YouTube video, which Al Jazeera cannot verify, is said to show a person killed in the central city of Hama. Please note that the footage is VERY graphic.

• Timestamp: 

  3:22pm

  Protesters march in the town of Talkalakh, 30km west of Homs.

• Timestamp: 

  3:09pm

  Video from the northern city of Raqqa, protesters chanting slogans against the government and in support of the "martyrs" in Deraa.

• Timestamp: 

  3:08pm

  Reuters reports that five people have been killed by security forces in Homs. The news agency quotes a rights activist. Al Jazeera cannot verify the report.

• Timestamp: 

  3:02pm

  This video is from a moped rally in the village Jarjanaz, north of the city of Hama.

• Timestamp: 

  2:54pm

  As protests got under way after Friday prayers, Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr spoke to an exiled activist in Beirut about how opposition activists get information out of Syria and spread it over the internet. Rami Nakhle, known online as Malath Aumran, fled Syria in January. He says he and his fellow activists abroad are receiving videos and news from reliable sources, who he knows personally, on the ground in Syria.

• Timestamp: 

  2:53pm

  Protesters calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down are marching towards the central square of Tmera, just east of the Damascus suburb of Douma, according to an eyewitness.

  Hussein, a 25-year-old from Tmera, said a group of around 1,500 protesters were marching towards a square renamed Tahrir Square, where army and pro-regime thugs had deployed. 

  As in Midan, Hussein said protestors were chanting, "To heaven we’re going, millions of martyrs," a call more usually heard among armed Palestinian groups when referring to Jerusalem.

  Hussein said a small group of protesters had tried but failed to enter Douma overnight. Douma, just northeast of Damascus, has been under a tight lockdown by the military and security forces for over a fortnight. 

  The lockdown of Douma, the main market of the area, has caused food prices in Tmera to soar, Hussein said, with one kilogramme of potatoes jumping from SYP23, around $0.50, to over a dollar in a matter of a few days. 

• Timestamp: 

  2:49pm

  Syrian security forces have arrested opposition leader Riad Seif at a demonstration in the Midan district of Damascus, his daughter and activists say.

  "My father was shoved into a bus with other protestors who were detained during the demonstration near the al-Hassan mosque," Jumana Seif told Reuters.

• Timestamp: 

  2:43pm

  A protest is under way in Daraya, and there is a call for demonstrators to march towards the Umayyad Square in Damascus.

• Timestamp: 

  2:37pm

  Around 2,000 residents of the eastern Damascus suburb Saqba marched through its main streets
  demanding the release of hundreds of relatives arrested by security forces in the last few days, a witness
  told Reuters.

  "The people want the overthrow of the regime," they chanted.

  The witness said some of the demonstrators were trying to march towards central Damascus, 6km away, but
  security forces had blocked all the roads leading to the capital from the suburbs.

• Timestamp: 

  2:02pm

  Reports of live ammunition fired in Tel and tanks deployed in the Damascus district of Barzeh. 

• Timestamp: 

  2:01pm

  An Al Jazeera Arabic reporter says there's a demo under way in the Jordanian city of Ramtha to support people in Syria's Deraa.

• Timestamp: 

  1:58pm

  There's a live stream up from Baniyas on this website.

• Timestamp: 

  1:55pm

  This video is said to be from the Kurdish town of Amuda. People are chanting " The Syrian people are one", "Freedom, freedom" and "Peaceful, peaceful".

• Timestamp: 

  1:49pm

  A big protest is reported in Homs, Syria's third largest city.

  Demonstrations also under way in the Damascus suburb of Jobar, activists say. People in another suburb, Douma, where military has been deployed, were reportedly trying to protest but were prevented to do so by security forces.

• Timestamp: 

  1:48pm

  Some residents of Baniyas, the oil refining port that has been a centre of anti-regime protests, fear a military assault, with tanks and armoured personnel carriers massing at the southern entrance to the city.

  "We are surrounded," said an eyewitness in Baniyas. "We expect the army to invade now that their mission in Deraa is finished."

  Since May 1, Baniyas has been divided between the southern half of the city, controlled by the protesters, and the northern half, controlled by the security forces and "pro-regime thugs". 

  Also in Baniyas, the young man who recorded a video posted on YouTube in which he rejected the regime’s claim that protestors were Salafists told Al Jazeera his name is on a list of 800 residents wanted by the secret police. 

  "I am wanted for weakening national sentiment because I talked to the press," he said. "We will protest. If the army invades Baniyas we will meet them with open chests and olive branches." 

• Timestamp: 

  1:41pm

  First videos of today's protests are coming out, the first one from the Damascus district of Midan. Protesters chant "The people want to topple the regime" and "To heaven we’re going, millions of martyrs”.

• Timestamp: 

  1:38pm

  Protests reported in many places including but not limited to Jama, Latakia, Deir al-Zour, Salamieh, Baniyas and Homs.

• Timestamp: 

  1:20pm

  More protests reported: Derbassiye in the north and the Midan district in Damascus.

  Also reports of heavy security presence in the mountain town of Zabadani outside Damascus.

• Timestamp: 

  1:06pm

  A protest is reported in Amuda, outside Qamishli in the mainly Kurdish northeast.

• Timestamp: 

  12:48pm

  The European Union is discussing sanctions against Syria today but the 27 nations appear to be split on whether the sanctions should directly target President Assad.

  The bloc has already agreed in principle on an embargo on the sale of weapons and equipment that might be used for internal repression as well as a review of the bloc's co-operation with Syria.

• Timestamp: 

  12:36pm

  Today is "Martyrs' Day" in Syria, but it doesn't refer to those killed in protests. It's a yearly event marking the day the Ottoman authorities executed Syrian national activists in 1916 following their calls for independence from the Ottoman Empire. President Assad attended a ceremony at the Unknown Soldier's monument in Damascus earlier today.

  
  Photo: AFP

• Timestamp: 

  11:35am

  A bitter war is raging online between those against the government and those who support the president. Rival Facebook sites accuse the other side of spreading lies. As large demonstrations are expected after Friday prayers, it appears that the number of Twitter postings in favour of the regime has increased.

  The Middle East Online website explores how the government and its supporters are using different media to spread the message that without President Bashar al-Assad, the country would descend into chaos.

  'We Syria,' 'The collaborators are seeking discord,' 'Yes to stability rather than chaos,' and 'Freedom is not sabotage,' are some of the string of slogans screaming out on street posters and television clips in Damascus [...]

  Ammar Ismail Shaie wages a relentless war on Facebook and Twitter against the young protesters of the so-called 'Syrian Revolution 2011' group.

  The main objective is to discredit the protesters by pointing to their 'lies' and denounce the coverage of television channels such as Qatar-based network Al-Jazeera, the bete noire of the Syrian authorities.

  'They broadcast only the view of the opposition, not that of the loyalists. There is no voice for those who love the president,' says Ammar."

• Timestamp: 

  10:45am

  Syrian state TV has aired a statement from the interior ministry, urging people not to demonstrate today.

  The ministry says anyone who wants to do so must get permission from the government and that no such permits have been issued.

  

• Timestamp: 

  9:18am

  A demonstration was held outside the Arab League headquarters in Cairo yesterday, with protesters waving a Syrian flag above a coffin symbolising those who have died during the uprising.

  Photo: Reuters

• Timestamp: 

  9:00am

  This video shows some of the destruction in the southern city of Deraa.

• Timestamp: 

  8:46am

  It's now been a week since Al Jazeera's journalist Dorothy Parvaz was detained upon arrival at Damascus airport. Syrian authorities have confirmed that they are holding her and the network is calling for her immediate release.

• Timestamp: 

  8:35am

  This video collage uploaded by amerawad111shows how protesters destroy pictures and statues of President Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez across the country.

• Timestamp: 

  7:35am

  Journalists were taken on a guided government tour as tanks left Deraa yesterday and pictures were taken of residents cheering the army, including women showering soldiers with rose petals and rice. The government says troops were deployed in the city on April 25 after residents called for their help against armed groups. The Syrian military's political department chief insisted that the army "did not confront the protesters".

  
  Photo: AFP

  However, rights activists have a different story. The Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies and the International Federation for Human Rights issued a statement on Wednesday, saying security forces had attacked civilians and killed more than 200 people.

  Snipers have been stationed on the rooftops of high buildings and are targeting any moving persons, and units composed of four-army forces have been using anti-aircraft machine guns to target densely populated neighborhoods, such as Al-Mahata and Deraa Al-Balad.

  "Authorities strictly prevented the burial of any of the dead. 'We had three refrigerated trucks, that were used for shipping food in and out of Syria, in which we kept 80 bodies per truck, after three days security forces took the trucks and returned them empty,' he [an eyewitness] said."

• Timestamp: 

  7:25am

  For more news and analysis on Syria, check out yesterday's live blog and our special Syria Spotlight page.