Troops storm Damascus suburb, make arrests

Hundreds of Syrian soldiers in combat gear broke into houses and made arrests overnight in the Damascus suburb of Saqba, scene of a mass demonstration against the president last week, a resident said on Thursday.

“The soldiers did not say who they were. People think they are from Maher’s Fourth division,” the female resident, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters, referring to the president’s brother Maher Al Assad.

“They cut off communications before they came in. There is no resistance. The demonstrations in Saqba have been peaceful. Scores of people have been arrested,” she said.

Thousands joined a demonstration in Saqba last Friday demanding the removal of President Bashar Al Assad.

On Wednesday, army units backed by tanks tightened the siege of two defiant urban centres, a sign that Assad is widening the use of the military to crush demonstrations against his autocratic rule.

Tanks and armoured vehicles deployed around Rastan town and army units set up checkpoints in Sunni districts in Banias, days after the army division led by Maher Al Assad crushed protests in the southern city of Deraa with shellfire and machineguns.

Before the army stormed Deraa, the cradle of the Syrian uprising, Assad had relied mainly on security forces and secret police to confront the mass demonstrations.

“Assad’s decision to use the army is pretty much the utmost escalation of force he can muster and a clear signal that he has no interest in any reconciliation,” an Arab government official monitoring the situation in Syria said.

Assad belongs to the minority Alawite sect. His father Hafez ruled majority Sunni Syria for 30 years, succeeded on his death 11 years ago by Bashar.

The elder Assad extended Alawite control of the army, which is now led by mostly Alawite officers and effectively controlled by Maher Al Assad, military experts say.

Rights groups say the army, security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad have killed at least 560 demonstrating civilians since the protests erupted in Deraa on March 18.

Last Friday military intelligence staff shot dead at least 17 demonstrators in Rastan, residents and rights campaigners said, after 50 members of the ruling Baath Party in the town resigned.

In the mixed coastal city Banias, soldiers deployed on Wednesday in the main market area which separates Alawite from Sunni districts.

The army set up checkpoints in Sunni areas and arrested 10 people. Military intelligence turned back a convoy of vehicles loaded with food for the besieged quarters, a human rights campaigner in contact with Banias said.

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