Daraa : The Suez of Syria

I know all the eyes of the world are currently fixed on Libya but I hope that they pay attention to what is currently taking place in Syria.
Daraa goveronerate is reportedly facing huge clashes between the angry citizens and the regime forces.Yesterday the citizens turned the funeral of the civilians who were killed on the Friday of dignity by the regime forces to an anti-regime protest.The security forces used tear gas grenades as far as I know.
Reports of huge army deployments came all day long yesterday. Last thing we heard from there that tanks had entered the city.There were also report saying that the Internet was cut in the city but it was back today. The security is said to let people in to the city but it is not letting the people to go outside it.
There are video clips coming from syria from March 18th and 19th showing Protesters after being shot down by the regime."graphic" The video below is from March 18th when one of the protesters was shot down and other protesters tried to transfer him to a hospital. You can hear something like gun shots.

Here is a video from March 18th from the city of Daraa where protesters are chanting "No fear, No fear"

Here is another video from Daraa but on March 19th , I think during the funeral 

For the third day protests continued in the city today .

The old Omari mosque there reportedly has been turned in to a field hospital , earlier there were reports about not less than 70 injured being trapped inside it. The people are reportedly taking off the photos and posters of Bashar Al Assad everywhere and there were gun shots heard over telephones when activists tried to reach out the people there. There is news that the Syrian regime sent VP Farouk Al-Sharaa to negotiate with the people there. 

BBC Arabic reports that a protester has been killed today. 

There is unconfirmed news today that there has been a protest in Hama , in particularly Salaymiah district. I read there was a small protest in Damascus today also but not sure about , also some are saying that there was a protest in the city of Adra near Damascus as well. 

Some tribes of Quneitra governorate have announced their support to the revolution already in a very important move. These tribes or rather tribe is "Abna Al Tahhan" which is proud of its linkage to Prophet Mohamed "PBUH" and Emam Ali. 

This audio statement is very interesting as the speaker says that the Syrian intelligence services prosecuted and arrested many of the tribes' men after planning to launch an attack against the Israeli forces through the borders. The speaker was firing back at the accusation of treason trying to show who was the real traitor who works for Israel here. It was confirmed that the city saw protests earlier today. 

Now there is another statement I found another audio statement for the spokesperson of the Syrian tribes attacking Bashar Al Assad and announced their fully support to the revolution.No one can authenticate if that audio station was truly from the Syrian tribes or not unlike the audio recording above which clearly states the name of the tribes clearly. 

 

There are very interesting parts in that statement like accusing Hafez Al Assad of selling the Golan heights to Israel 'I covered that before' and his son Bashar of selling Syria now to Iran. 

There are lots of rumors in the country there by the way. 

The Syrians are extremely from what they considered the bias coverage of Al Jazeera and some of them think it is due to the close relation between Al Assad and prince of Qatar. Al Arabiya on the other hand was covering the situation more than Al Jazeera , the Saudi- Syrian relations play a role here without a doubt. Of course some will argue and say that all channels are focusing on Libya but I will say that professionalism say that you cover everything equally. 

The Syrians reportedly protested saying "Where are you Al Jazeera ? Where are you Al Jazeera"

I hope the channel considers its stand carefully because the popularity it has again during the Tunisian and the Egyptian revolution could be affected negatively with that biased coverage in Syria. 

From couple of days ago our spy chief Mourad Mowfi visited Syria and met with Bashar Al Assad, there are many question marks about this visit with no doubt. First of all I thought that the file of Syria has returned back to the ministry of foreign affairs but we should not forget that the damage in our relations during the Mubarak was too huge and needs careful step to amend it. May be the visit simply a message to those who care that the old regional policies were over. Already the Israeli media does not like that visit at all. 

I can't keep out of my mind , the time of the visit and Hilary Clinton's visit to Cairo. May be Mowfi is just a messenger and warning the Syrian regime from supporting Qaddafi anymore. 

I do not think that major General Mowfi had brought the disgusting behavior of the Syrian embassy in Cairo against the Egyptian reporters and bloggers not to mention their own Syrian citizens in the Egyptian territories. 

There used to be a wonderful website called "Syria 15" built on Shahid platform showing the locations of the protests through out the country but it is down , I hope it was not hacked or anything.
I found this website today "End the silence" that includes a Live news coverage page.  I will work also on tweeps list from Syria that will us follow what is going there.