The unusually violent protest in Sweida, Syria

Dozens of people stormed and looted the office of the governor of Sweida province in southern Syria on Sunday to protest against the country’s President Bashar al Assad, accused of being responsible for the price hike and the general deterioration of economic conditions in Syria. There were violent clashes with the police, who fired on some demonstrators to suppress the demonstration: two people were killed, a demonstrator and a policeman, and seven others were injured.

Sweida’s protest is not only remarkable for its violence: the city is indeed located in Syrian territories still controlled by the state, and therefore by the Assad government, where anti-government demonstrations are very rare and very little tolerated: 11 years after the start of the war, in fact, Syria is essentially divided into numerous stretches of territory controlled by different groups and with varying degrees of hostility between them.

In addition, Sweida is a city where the majority of Druze live, that is to say the followers of a religious minority of Shiite Muslim origin, who have always managed to stay away from the conflict since the beginning. of the war in Syria in 2011: the Druze. religious leaders, for example, have always refused to allow their followers to join the army.

The protest began on Sunday morning with the gathering of a few hundred demonstrators in the city center, around the government building of the province of which Sweida is the capital: the demonstrators sang many songs calling for the overthrow of Assad and his government, which is blamed for the worsening of their living conditions. They then forced their way into the building and looted and set it on fire, before setting fire to the front entrance with some of the things they had taken inside: among other things, videos circulated of protesters stomping and burning paintings depicting Assad.

The Syrian Interior Minister said protesters also tried to attack police stations in the city: in one of the clashes that followed these attempts, a policeman was said to have died. The slain protester died under police gunfire as he entered the provincial government building with others, according to the agency. AFP extension Rami Abdel, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR, “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”).

In general, the repression by the security forces was particularly violent and the local television Suwayda 24 published video which appear to show police shooting at fleeing protesters.

Source: ilpost

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