‘Young Boy Shot in Head’: Gruesome Scene in Syria On Deadliest Day of Protests Yet
- Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:04pm by
Emily Esfahani Smith
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BEIRUT (AP/THE BLAZE) — Syrian security forces fired bullets and tear gas Friday on pro-democracy demonstrations across the country, killing at least 49 people – including a young boy – in the bloodiest day of the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime, witnesses and a human rights group said. Amnesty International says at least 75 people have been killed during the deadliest day of pro-democracy protests in Syria.
The Blaze initially reported this story here–when only 27 activists were said to be killed.
The human rights group cited local activists.
Syrian security forces fired live bullets and tear gas Friday on rallies across the country.
The demonstrations are a sign that President Bashar Assad’s attempts to quell the monthlong protests with a deadly crackdown and promises of reform have all but failed.
The protest movement has been the gravest challenge against the autocratic regime led by Assad. He inherited power from his father 11 years ago in one of the most rigidly controlled countries in the Middle East.
The protests, held every Friday, have become weekly bloodbaths as security forces try to crush the demonstrations. But the mounting death tolls have only served to invigorate a protest movement whose demands have snowballed from modest reforms to the downfall of the 40-year Assad dynasty.
More than 250 people have been killed over five weeks, human rights groups say.
“Bullets started flying over our heads like heavy rain,” said one witness in Izraa, a southern village in Daraa province, the same region where the uprising kicked off in mid-March.
Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria’s National Organization for Human Rights, said the death toll had reached 49 and at least 20 people were missing.
The protest movement has been the gravest challenge against the autocratic regime led by Assad, who inherited power from his father 11 years ago in one of the most rigidly controlled countries in the Middle East.
The uprising in Syria takes its inspiration from the popular revolts sweeping the Arab world. But there are significant differences in Syria that make the protest movement there all the more unpredictable.
The country’s military structure is a key difference – unlike the armies of Tunisia and Egypt, Syria’s military and security apparatus will almost certainly stand by Assad, at least for the time being.
That means there could be darker days ahead as the uprising gains momentum, something that has implications far beyond Syria’s borders. Damascus stands in the middle of the most combustible conflicts in region because of its web of allegiances, from Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Shiite powerhouse Iran.
On Friday, tens of thousands of people were protesting in the Damascus suburb of Douma, the central cities of Hama and Homs, Latakia and Banias on the coast, the northern cities of Raqqa and Idlib, the northeastern Kurdish region, and the southern province of Daraa.
As the protesters dispersed, the scope of the bloodshed began to emerge.
A video posted on the protest movement’s main Facebook page showed a man carrying a bloodied boy near a building as another child could be heard weeping and shouting “My brother!”
Hospitals received scores of dead and gravely wounded.
Friday’s witness accounts could not be independently confirmed because Syria has expelled journalists and restricted access to trouble spots. Witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Assad has been trying to defuse the protests by launching a bloody crackdown along with a series of concessions, most recently lifting emergency laws that gave authorities almost boundless powers of surveillance and arrest.
He also has fulfilled a decades-old demand by granting citizenship to thousands among Syria’s long-ostracized Kurdish minority, fired local officials, released detainees and formed a new government.
But many protesters said the concessions have come too late – and that Assad does not deserve the credit.
“The state of emergency was brought down, not lifted,” prominent Syrian activist Suhair Atassi, who was arrested several times in the past, wrote on her Twitter page. “It is a victory as a result of demonstrations, protests and the blood of martyrs who called for Syria’s freedom.”
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Comments (41)
Ruler4You
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 8:40pmI‘d say they are lucky they weren’t in Waco, TX for the Branch Davidian massacre as religious adherents to a belief system not supported by the U.S. government. They could have been hurt.
Report Post »ARIZONA VETERAN
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 8:38pm1,999,999,999 to go…
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 7:59pmYoung boys shot in head, young girls wearing American tennis shoes, old men trading favorite camels for viagra.., dogs and cats living together….what the hell is going on in Syria\? They are mad…I tell you;….Mad!
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 7:37pmI know that President Obama cannot be directly blamed for this Syrian mess but he, as leader of the Western World, has sent a message of WEAKNESS and MUDDLED CONFUSION to the rest of the world. In other words, America will no longer lead nor stand for anything!
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 7:18pmLook at the rage and the uncivilized manner in which the world operates outside of the west. Look at the embecillic actions and the corruption. The third world is always in turmoil. AND we have idiots that let that kind of people and attitudes in our own country to attack our families. We are stupid. Stop immigration from the 3rd world NOW (that includes Mexico).
Report Post »Cemoto78
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:47pmFreedom is never “Free”
Report Post »AzDebi
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:43pmOur Second Amendment is OUR guarantee against this kind of GOVERNMENT TYRANNY! Most here would agree with me that our government can have our guns ONLY after they pry it from our cold, dead hands! God Bless America!
Report Post »JOHNNYROTEN
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:42pmand just think…………this young man could have lived for a few more years and lead a productive life………………………………..like strapping 2 lbs of c4 in a vest and blowing up a cafe in Israel,,,,,,,,,,,,,not sorry, …..this is the truth of the middle east
Report Post »ICANHANDLETHETRUTH
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:33pmHave a Happy Easter guys !!!!!!!
Report Post »notreally
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:31pmAnytime you see a bunch or Muslim men shouting “Allahu Akbar” you can be sure that their rage isn’t about establishing freedom and equality, it’s about establishing Sharia law.
Report Post »Infidel and Proud
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:23pmBottom line:
Muslims getting killed – EXCELLENT !
Report Post »Muslims getting killed by OTHER muslims – EVEN BETTER !
The sooner we are rid of these savages, the better
V-Forge
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:14pmStupid people. That’s what happens when allah runs the country. Start waving American flags and ask for help and we might help but you would rather burn them so goodbye. Don’t worry we will eventually kill your dictator when he thinks he is big enough to attack us. You people will be forgotten and will have never existed. All because you blindly followed a religious figure that liked little girls too much.
Report Post »Suki
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:54pmAfter Pelosi’s Syria Visit, Dissidents Cower
Report Post »http://www.observer.com/2007/after-pelosi-s-syria-visit-dissidents-cower
Rickfromillinois
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:52pmIsn’t this the reason we got involved in Libya? Are we going to start bombing there next?
Report Post »Suki
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:51pmWhy doesn’t Nancy Pelosi throw on her burqua and jet over to Syria to advise her buddy Assad on how to handle all the peasant rabble out making trouble?
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 8:03pmPelosi in a burqa…lol..I saw the pics of her with her old ugly head covered….the burqa was made for old ugly sluts like her.
Report Post »Sgt.Crust
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:50pmDays of Rage, my prayers go out to those who want freedom. I just hope it is real freedom they want, not a theocracy, like Iran. Who the heck knows anymore! It’s all a question mark over there.
Report Post »Taquoshi
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:34pmJust remember, Bush, Cheney and Rove all had a hand in this. See, I was the first to say it!
Report Post »Hungry_i
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:32pmI’m watching the evil Al Jazera on the Blaze!
Report Post »chiefparker
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:28pmCNN thought these uprisings were just wonderful a couple of months ago. Where are they now?
Report Post »ZzzzzYKKKKZZzzzzz
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 8:57pmThis is the UN’s technique for world population reduction
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:24pmThey are far from God and do not know him. They could change that! It all comes down to a choice. Keep living and believing the lie of Islam or embrace the only one true God of the universe. He is known as “I am” Yeshua, Jehovah, Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega. The father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Nice to have political and personal power in this life but thats not the message of God.
Report Post »shakedowncrews
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:24pmDeath to Assad!
Report Post »ZzzzzYKKKKZZzzzzz
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:15pmIs that a picture of Gietner on his poster.
God, help these people to become civilized.
God, help them to follow your ways,
Report Post »in Jesus’ name. Amen
Bob_R_OathKeeper
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:10pmYep and already showing it’s evil head here, it’s up to citizens, right NOW to start protecting themselves and preparing, this corrupt government is through, a reset is coming, but who emerges from this is the key.
Report Post »Curator_JDR
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:09pmWhat can Israel do? You will REALLY know times are changing for the BETTER when Israelis rebuilds their ancient gates as a symbol of the PERMANENCE of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland.. This would make the Muslims (more) insane and unite the Jewish people at the same time.
When renowned artist Marc Richard Rubin was painting his requested Biblical exhibition on the lineage and history of the Jewish people for Holocaust survivors in the early 2000?s , (online exhibition: http://www.marcrubin.com/or.ivnu ) one night while listening to music under the headphones he heard a voice so loud, he thought someone else was in the room. He wrote down what he heard, and as Marc related, his pen seemed to write by itself; he struggled to grasp it.
What Marc received were the schematics and reason for the “Gate of Israel”. http://www.marcrubin.com/pylon.ivnu While the “Palestinians” plot for international recognition of their terror state, this “SYMBOLIC fact on the ground” demonstrates the absurdity and futility of the Palestinian false claim to Eretz Yisrael.
The blueprints are a seed. Only the PEOPLE of Israel can bring the Gate of Israel to fruition. Let everyone you know who loves Israel know of the “Gate of Israel”
Report Post »Vet with Vendetta
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:09pmSigns of the end times.
Report Post »“Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.’” (Jesus; Luke 21:10-11)
Rickfromillinois
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 5:51pmIn all fairness, please tell me of a time during the last 2 thousand years when this wasn’t true?
Vet with Vendetta
Posted on April 22, 2011 at 8:41pmWell, if you consider the prophet Daniel when he speaks of the end times: ““But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
Report Post »In the last 100 years knowledge has increased by leaps and bounds that would have astonished anyone from an earlier age.
Ezekiel 36 and 37 also prophesied that Israel would be restored as a nation. That recently happened in 1948.