Pupils join new phase of protests over Assad

Syrian children chanting for revolution marched in Damascus and in other parts of the country after school yesterday, only for some to be detained or beaten by security forces.

Children as young as ten have been taking to the streets since the new term began on Sunday, according to witnesses, in what appears to be the first major involvement of schoolchildren in the six-month-old uprising against president Bashar al-Assad.

Girls chanting, “revolution is bright, the regime is dark,” marched in the Damascus’s suburb of Zabadani, according to activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees. Another pupil protest in the north-western village of Mhambal came under attack by security forces and pro-regime gunmen who beat some of the children and detained parents, the group said. Schoolchildren also were detained in the southern village of Dael.

Online video showed more than two dozen young people gathered in a street of Zabadani chanting, “the people want the president executed” and “we will only kneel to God”.

Yesterday’s protests came a day after security forces detained dozens of protesting schoolchildren in the southern village of Jassem. Also on Wednesday, security forces surrounded several schools in the Damascus suburbs of Harasta, Arbeen and Zamalka, said the LCC.

Online footage showed people running away in a street in the town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon as gunfire crackled. A man could be heard shouting “they are shooting at students in the city of Qusair”.

Other footage showed the funeral of a teacher identified as Jihad Haji who was said to have been shot by security forces. Young mourners could be heard chanting “there is no God but God, Assad is the enemy of God” as they carried his coffin in Waer near the central city of Homs.

In other unrest yesterday, the state news agency said an “armed group” ambushed a bus with policemen, killing five and wounding 18 officers in the southern province of Deraa, where the uprising began six months ago.

The LCC and other opposition groups have ordered protesters to remain peaceful, and not give the authorities an excuse to portray them as “terrorists”.

The US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, said Mr Assad was losing support and risked plunging Syria into sectarian strife. He said there was economic malaise in Syria, signs of dissent within Mr Assad’s Alawite minority sect and more defections from the army since mid-September, but the military was “still very powerful and very cohesive”.

Speaking in Damascus, he said Mr Assad’s regime is “creating even more violence”.

He cited a statement issued in Homs last month by three notable members Alawites that said the Alawites’ future was not tied to the Assads. Mr Ford said: “We did not see developments like that in April or May. I think the longer this continues the more difficult it becomes for the different communities, the different elements of Syrian society that used to support Assad, to continue to support him.”