Views from Inside Syria

Still not sure what the deal is with this Tlass defection story. On the one hand it has "hoax" written all over it, on the other, and like most things to do with Syria, it is just about plausible. I've heard rumours that the regime is still at a total loss about how to deal with this situation, that they are still striking blindly about without any idea how to end all of this.

I was told by a source close to me that soldiers in Idlib are given three magazines a day and told to empty these into the crowds, otherwise they will be shot. The person who told my source is a close friend who is doing his military service in the Idlib area. That person was back in Damascus on leave, and he looked like he had lost much weight. He said that there are sectarian chants by protesters, and that, though he and his friends had once tried to explain that they are Sunni, but they had been attacked by mobs and had to fire back. The situation is very tense over there and he is at his wit's end. Morale is very poor.

On another note, the regime seems very keen to let young people leave the country. Many people who had been arrested by the regime for protesting were let through Damascus airport without any problems. It is like the regime wishes young people and to leave, in order to ease the pressure in some areas. Dubai is now said to be like a Damascus neighbourhood. This is all good and well, but it seems to contrast with the behaviour I've been told by another friend who said that on the bus to Jordan passengers are prevented from leaving, or hassled and insulted by the staff - some say these work for intelligence. One friend's aunt was insulted and told to go back to Homs and die there. His sister, a student at Qalamoun, was there when the Assad thugs attacked it and broke into the girl's dorms. She was also initially told that she cannot leave. When she mentioned that her family knows the Akhras family - which is true - she was told "I shit on you and the Akhras family". So from some I hear that the regime is letting people leave, from others it seems the country is turning into a massive prison.

Also been told by a friend, whose family live in the Insha'at area of Homs - a very middle class and respectable neighbourhood - that their home has been destroyed by Assad's forces. He also tells me that families he knows have been robbed by the security services. They enter people's homes and pick the furniture that they want, then have it loaded into vans and taken off.