AFP/Damascus
Syria’s under-fire president yesterday appointed two new governors in flashpoint provinces that have seen staunch protests against his regime, as security forces reportedly killed three more civilians.
A Syrian Kurdish demonstrator raises his tied hands as he shouts slogans against the Syrian government’s crackdown on anti-regime protests during a demonstration outside the Syrian embassy in Beirut yesterday
State television said President Bashar al-Assad named new governors for the northwestern province of Idlib and for the Damascus governorate, both of which have seen massive anti-regime demonstrations over the past seven months.
Assad has sacked several governors since the wave of protests erupted in mid-March, including the Hama governor who was dismissed in July after a record 500,000 protesters rallied there against the regime.
Yasser Salman el-Shufi was named as Idlib’s new governor while Makhluf Makhluf was appointed governor for the Damascus province.
Activists meanwhile called for fresh protests yesterday under the slogan: “It’s your turn”—a reference to Assad—hoping to force him out of power in the way Libyans ended the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a funeral for two civilians shot dead at dawn quickly turned into an anti-regime rally in the flashpoint province of Hama.
Angry mourners in the Hama village of Al Madiq “demanded the fall of the regime,” the Britain-based group said in a statement received by AFP in Nicosia.
Hama’s history is steeped in blood. An estimated 20,000 people were killed there in 1982 when the army put down an Islamist revolt against the rule of Assad’s late father, Hafez al-Assad.
A third civilian was killed when security forces manning a checkpoint in Mayadeen near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor opened fire, and two others were seriously wounded, the Observatory said.
Also yesterday, troops backed by security forces raided the villages of Dael and Ibtaa in the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the pro-democracy protests, to end a strike by residents.
“The military forces removed barricades set up by the residents in Dael and Ibraa,” the Observatory said, adding that the strike had been launched four days earlier.
The pro-democracy activists who called for more anti-regime demonstrations yesterday compared Assad to Libya’s Gaddafi, who was killed on Thursday.
“It’s your turn. We do the same with criminals,” said a message posted on the Facebook page of the Syrian Revolution 2011 under pictures of Assad and Gaddafi.
US Senator John McCain raised the prospect yesterday of possible armed intervention to protect civilians in Syria.
“Now that military operations in Libya are ending, there will be renewed focus on what practical military operations might be considered to protect civilian lives in Syria,” McCain told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan.
McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Assad’s “regime should not consider that it can get away with mass murder”.
Gaddafi “made that mistake and it cost him everything,” he said.
“There are even growing calls among the opposition for some foreign military intervention. We hear these pleas for assistance. We are listening to and engaging with the (opposition) National Council,” he added.
“The Syrian revolution may now be entering a new phase. The opposition has formed the Syrian National Council seeking to better organise itself. There are increasing reports of defections from the army,” said McCain.
“More Syrians appear to be taking up arms against the regime.”
McCain charged that “dark forces in this region, especially in Iran, are working harder than ever to hijack the promise of what many are calling the Arab Spring.
“These concerns are real and legitimate and merit our vigilance.”
