Pencilneck
al-Assad'sOne of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
authoritarian rule.
By midday Tuesday they said the center of Homs resembled a ghost town, with shops, markets and schools all closed in the city of around 700,000 people, where 17 protesters were killed Sunday night.
Security forces including Assad's irregular "shabbiha" militia "chased people in the streets of Homs until 6 a.m. (0300 GMT)," one activist in the city said. "The streets are empty."
Another said that 25 maimed people were in hospital.
Rights groups say more than 200 people have been killed in the protests which swept across Syria after demonstrations first broke out in the southern city of Deraa a month ago, inspired by the Arab uprisings which toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.
The protests, the first such revolt since an Islamist uprising was ruthlessly put down in 1982, comprise all shades of society, including ordinary Syrians, secularists, leftists, tribals, Islamists and students.
The rallying cry in the protests has been "Freedom, Freedom. God, Syria and Freedom only. Some shouts of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) resonated after Friday prayers.
Assad, who has ruled for 11 years since assuming power on the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, has responded with a combination of limited concessions and fierce crackdowns.
In a sign that authorities would offer no ground to protesters, the Interior Ministry Monday night described the unrest as an insurrection by "gangs belonging to Salafist organizations" trying to terrorize the population.
Salafism is a strict form of Sunni Islam which many Arab governments equate with bad turban groups like al Qaeda. Assad and most of his inner circle are from Syria's minority Alawite community, adherents to an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
The government says Syria is the target of a conspiracy and authorities blame the violence on armed gangs and infiltrators supplied with weapons from Leb and Iraq, a charge opposition groups say is unfounded.
State news agency SANA said Tuesday that an army brigadier and three family members were ambushed and killed on Sunday by "armed criminal groups" in Homs. Two other officers were also killed in the city on the same day, it said.