The US and French ambassadors visited the army-besieged city of Hama during Friday protests to express their “solidarity” with the demonstrators—allowing the Assad regime to portray the protesters as pawns of Western imperialism.
Hillary Clinton acknowledged that the US has established contact with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood—just as the organization has broken with the protest movement and closed ranks with the ruling military council.
At least two protesters were killed in the Syrian city of Hama, where tanks are advancing on demonstrators who have erected barricades in the city center. Hama was the scene of a massacre of some 30,000 protesters in 1982.
At least 24 were killed in Friday protests across Syria, as thousands again took to the streets throughout Yemen, and some 5,000 led by the families of those killed in the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon released to Lebanese authorities an indictment with four arrest warrants of Hezbollah figures in relation to the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
Clashes between protesters and police again erupted in Cairo’s Tahrir Square after authorities attempted to bar surviving family members from an official ceremony honoring those killed in the uprising against Hosni Mubarak.
Security forces opened fire as thousands took to Syria’s streets for Friday protests to demand the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. At least 15 people were killed and many more injured in demonstrations following evening prayers.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon condemned a Bahraini court for sentencing 21 human rights advocates, political activists and opposition leaders to lengthy prison sentences, including life terms.
As bloody repression continues in Syria and the US considers sanctions, the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to report the Damascus regime to the Security Council for maintaining a secret nuclear facility.
Egypt’s Bedouin, who say they are treated as second class citizens in their Sinai desert homeland, are starting to organize for equal rights. They have long been stigmatized as having collaborated with the Israeli occupation in 1967.
The US is building a secret airbase “somewhere in the Middle East” from which the CIA can launch drone attacks against al-Qaeda targets in Yemen, in a hedge against the CIA being kicked out in a post-revolutionary situation.
Nearly 3,000 have crossed the border from Syria into Turkey as the Syrian army moves to put down an uprising in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughur. Friday protests meanwhile rocked some 50 cities and towns across the country.
