Women and children in the besieged Syrian city of Daraa chanted “God is greatest against the tyrant” from rooftops in the night after troops backed by tanks intensified a crackdown on the city. Troops stormed into Daraa, cradle of a six-week-old uprising against President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian rule, a week ago to try to crush protests that have spread across the country of 20 million. Power and communications have been disrupted.
On April 30, tanks shelled the old quarter of the southern city and security forces stormed the Omari mosque, a focal point for protests. Security forces were entering homes and dragging men onto buses.
The chants echoed the calls of Iranian protesters who took to rooftops in Tehran chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is Greatest) during post-election unrest in 2009. Foreign correspondents have largely been excluded from Syria since the protests escalated and the crackdown began.
A Syrian rights group said at least 560 civilians have been killed in the six-week-old uprising in support of demands for greater political freedom and action against corruption that has flourished under the Baath Party, in power since 1963.