SANAA/AMMAN, (Reuters) – Mass protests spread to the capital of Syria for the first time today and looked closer than ever to driving out the leader of Yemen, nearly four months since unrest erupted across the Arab world.
Fridays, the traditional Muslim prayer day, have been the focus of protests since a Tunisian vegetable seller set himself on fire in December, triggering a wave of unrest that swept away the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and sparked civil war in Libya.
Protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad swept into the capital, Damascus and flared across the country, with demonstrators chanting “God, Freedom, Syria”.
In Yemen, a defiant President Ali Abdullah Saleh denounced his opponents as liars and bandits, while urging them to join peace talks that would see him hand over power. Demonstrations across the country were vast but appeared to be less violent than in previous weeks.
In Jordan, at least 20 people were hospitalised after clashes between pro-monarchy youths wielding batons and throwing rocks, and ultra-conservative Sunni Muslims who held a rally at a mosque demanding freedom for detainees.
In Saudi Arabia, where all protests are forbidden and demonstrations are rare, hundreds of Shi’ites in the oil-producing east took to the streets. They carried banners showing solidarity with Shi’ites in neighbouring Bahrain, who have faced a crackdown from their Sunni Muslim rulers.
The Arab world’s unrest has suddenly weakened the grip of autocrats across the region, few of whom had seemed more secure than Syria’s Assad, 45, who inherited the presidency from his father 11 years ago. Their Baath party has run the country under emergency law for nearly five decades, brooking no opposition.
In Damascus, security forces used batons and tear gas to prevent thousands of protesters marching from several suburbs from reaching the main Abbasside Square.
“I counted 15 mukhabarat (secret police) busloads,” one eyewitness said. “They went into the alleyways just north of the square chasing protesters and yelling ‘you pimps, you infiltrators, you want freedom? we will give it to you’.”
A witness who accompanied marchers from the suburb of Harasta said thousands chanted “the people want the overthrow of the regime” and tore down posters of Assad along the route.
On Thursday Assad unveiled a new cabinet, which has little power in the one-party state, and ordered the release of some detainees, a move a human rights lawyer said was a “drop in the ocean” compared with thousands of political prisoners still held.