All that the Tundra Tabloids will say is, there will be blood. KGS
Thousands of Syrian mourners burn Baath party buildings
By REUTERS
03/26/2011 16:36
Assad faces crisis as security forces open fire on protesters; more funerals planned, demonstrators gather in Deraa; 260 prisoners released in bid to placate reformists; Amnesty says 55 believed dead.
DAMASCUS – Thousands of mourners at a funeral for a Syrian killed in anti-government protests burned a ruling Baath party building and a police station on Saturday as authorities freed 260 prisoners in a bid to placate reformists.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was facing the deepest crisis of his 11 years in power after security forces fired on protesters on Friday, adding to a death toll that rights groups have said now numbers in the dozens.
Mosques across Deraa announced the names of “martyrs” whose funerals would be held in the southern city and on Saturday hundreds were gathering in the main square chanting for freedom.
Three bare-chested young men climbed onto the rubble of a statue of late President Hafez al-Assad, which protesters pulled down on Friday in a scene that recalled the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Iraq in 2003 by US troops.
A witness said they had cardboard signs reading “the people want the downfall of the regime”, a refrain heard in uprisings across the Arab world from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen.
