Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Holding Back the Tide of Protest

2043 GMT: Bahrain's five main opposition groups have called for gatherings this Friday for an "Independent Judiciary":

2023 GMT: According to the sign, this video was taken this evening in Bab Amr, Homs. The protesters hold a sign that says "Russia and China are traders of Syrian blood":

This video was reportedly taken tonight in Hama, in Sabouniye. The protesters chant "the people want the fall of the regime."

1935 GMT: This is a must-see video, as Al Jazeera gets some leaked footage from al Rastan, where nearly 10% of the town has reportedly been arrested and perhaps more than 60 activists have been killed. [The video has now been moved to Thursday's LiveBlog.]

1910 GMT: A source in Bahrain forwards us these images from protests last night. The first shows the people in Al Dair marching peacefully:

Later, the protest in Al Dair was disrupted by police who reportedly fired tear gas, flash grenades, and possibly rubber bullets or birdshot:

This video reportedly shows clashes in Duraz village:

Police raid a building in Duraz:

There were also protests in Almusalah, and this picture was taken Sitra-Sefala:

1905 GMT: A large crowd of protesters gather in Bayada, Homs, tonight:

The Bahraini government has agreed to retry in a civilian court 20 medics who were given heavy sentences this week for treating protesters.

This move is a response to international pressure from governments, activists, and human rights groups, as the medics were tried in closed sessions in military tribunals. It remains to be seen, however, if the medics will be given more adequate representation, or whether allegations of torture will be admissible in the proceedings.

1808 GMT: In another twist in the geopolitical arena, the top defected officer and leader of the Syrian Free Army has taken refuge in Turkey:

Turkey’s Anatolian news agency quoted Colonel Riad al-Asaad, the most senior Syrian officer to defect to the opposition since the popular revolt erupted in March, as saying he was safe in Turkey.

The agency’s report was datelined Hatay in southern Turkey, where 7,000 Syrians have fled to escape Assad’s crackdown on protesters.

1648 GMT: Syrian President Bashar al Assad, speaking to Iran's government run Fars News, said that he was willing to light fire to Israel if Syria was attacked by a "crazy" force:

"If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv," Assad said after Davutoglu conveyed the United States' warning message to him.

He also reiterated that Damascus will also call on Hezbollah in Lebanon to launch such an intensive rocket and missile attack on Israel that the Israeli spy agencies could never imagine.

"All these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack the US warships in the Persian Gulf and the US and European interests will be targeted simultaneously," Assad said.

1521 GMT: The Local Coordinating Committees of Syria are reporting that yesterday they were able to establish brief contact with the beseiged town of Al Rastan, Homs. An eyewitness reported that 250 defected soldiers defended the city against the army, and many more army officers had been executed because they refused to kill civilians:

The Syrian army shelling of the town did not spare any street or school. They even helped the shabiha to exhume bodies of martyrs from their graves and stole many of them. One of the bodies that they exhumed and kidnapped is that of martyr Ahmad Khalaf. They also arrested his father.

More than 60 people were killed, among whom are 3 women. I do not know the exact number of children who were killed, but I can confidently say that the rumour about killing 20 children is not true.

More than 3000 people were detained; most of them were imprisoned in the cement factory which was turned into one of the largest prisons, in addition to schools. I could not estimate the number of prisoners who were tortured but there are many of them. I know that they beat the detainees in an unprecedented brutal way using mainly the soles of their rifles. They aimed at the wounds of wounded detainees in their beating and torturing which eventually led to the death of many of them.

Due to the loss of communication with the town, and the lack of journalistic freedom in al Rastan and all of Syria, it is not possible to verify these reports.

1511 GMT: Russia has responded to criticism of its veto of a UN resolution on Syria by inviting members of the opposition to speak at the Foreign Ministry:

"In October we intend to receive in Moscow two Syrian opposition delegations: one from the domestic wing of the opposition based in Damascus, and the second from those who declared the so-called national council," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich told journalists in televised remarks.

1505 GMT: Yemen has been the site of more bloodshed for the last 24+ hours. Two people were killed in the capital city, Sana'a, when the military began randomly shelling a busy shopping district, according to the Examiner. The report also said that 8 people were killed last night and today in Taiz:

In Taiz, Republican Guard forces shelled residential areas in the city center, injuring several residents. In the evening, the city's protest center, Freedom Square was attacked. So far, eight fatalities have been reported along with dozens of injuries as the violence continues.

The Republican Guard, which contains the US trained elite counter-terror unit, is headed by President Ali Saleh's son, Ahmed, and has committed much of the violence against protesters. Another of Saleh's relatives, nephew General Yahya Saleh, heads the Central Security forces. In an interview with France24, General Saleh said the revolution was "boring" and accused defected soldiers of shooting the protesters to create negative publicity for the regime.

1454 GMT: The weird and confusing story of the day. Rights groups had reported that Zainab al-Hosni had been burned and mutilated by the Syria regime. But then she appeared on State television yesterday.

Hosni, 18, became an icon for the Syrian revolt against President Bashar al-Assad after the body of a badly-burned decapitated woman was found last month in a morgue by Hosni's family, according to reports by HRW and Amnesty International.

But on Tuesday, Syrian state television broadcast an interview with a young woman it said was Hosni and produced what it said was her identity card. It said her death had been fabricated to "serve foreign interests."

"I came today to the police to say the truth. I am alive in contrast to what the lying satellite television stations had said," the woman said in the interview.

The report suggested that she had run away to escape abuse at the hands of her brothers. Amnesty has responded by reminding everyone that the body of a burned and mutilated body of some woman had still been recovered, and there was still an overwhelming body of evidence to suggest that the Assad regime was guilty of abuses.

The Associated Press has insinuated that this was a sick hoax perpetrated by the Syrian regime to discredit the claims of the opposition and the rights workers. Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch spoke to The Guardian via Skype:

All this confusion should highlight the need for the Syrian authorities to allow human rights observers into the country.

The family has not be able to speak to Zainab yet. It is important to allow time for the mother to contact her daughter. It is important to allow independent investigation.

We always verify and cross check the information we get. In this case we felt we had done our homework. I remember specifically asking the mother, are you sure this is Zainab, because the face was greatly burned. She turned to me and said 'a mother knows her daughter'. There was no reason to doubt this. She is in shock right now.

1441 GMT: An activist translates the description of this video, posted on Facebook:

#Douma, #Damascus suburbs: video showing security forces and shabbiha breaking into a house 5-10-2011

The Shabiha (literally "ghosts," plain-clothed paramilitary working with the Assad regime) try to preposition the camera before they kick the door down, but it appears to slide back into place.

1434 GMT: This video was reportedly taken today in the Forkan district of Aleppo. The students chant, "the people want the toppling of the regime." The date and time on the clock appear to be wrong (as it isn't 2008, but it also is not 3 in the morning, suggesting that the clock is not set):

These students are chanting for freedom in Daraya, Damascus today:

The battle lines are being drawn between Russia and china and the rest of the countries in the UN Security council after Russia and China blocked a resolution condemning the violence in Syria. US Ambassador Rice, in particular, broke traditional diplomatic niceties and outright accused the two countries of protecting human rights abusers:

“The United States is outraged that this council has utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge and a growing threat to regional peace and security,” said Rice after Russia and China vetoed a resolution that threatened possible measures against Syria.

Rice condemned opponents of the resolution on the 15-member council who she said “would rather sell arms to the Syrian regime.”

“Today two members have vetoed a vastly watered down text that doesn’t even mention sanctions,” she told the council.

“Let me be clear: the United States believes it is past time that this council assumed its responsibilities and imposed tough targeted sanctions and an arms embargo on the Assad regime.”

The outrage in her voice is clearly evident:

Prime Minister Erdogan, on the other hand, has said that Turkey will move forward with its own sanctions against Syria, another fascinating shift in the geopolitical landscape.

1302 GMT: James Miller takes the blog while Professor Lucas is traveling.

And there have been troubling developments in Egypt. Coptic Christians staged a sit-in protest last night. They have been increasingly frustrated over the burning of two churches and discrimination at the hands of some Muslims in those communities. They are also, however, frustrated at the ruling military's slow response to the violence.:

Egypt’s minority Coptic population has been fuming since last month after a group of Muslims in Merinab village in Aswan attempted to block renovations underway at a Christian church in the majority Muslim village, charging that the building was actually a ‘guesthouse’ that cannot be turned into a church.

Coptic protesters congregated in the main square in Cairo’s neighborhood of Shubra, which is home to a large concentration of Egyptian Christians.

It appears that the sit-in protest was dispersed by the military, and the shocking video below reportedly shows security officers surrounding a single man and badly abusing him after the protest was dispersed last night:

0415 GMT: There was no "Manama Tsunami" on Tuesday. The opposition in Bahrain had hoped to slow traffic in the morning and hold a "human chain" protest in the afternoon, but --- apart from some jams on the capital's highway which may or may not been fed by the attempted demonstration --- there was no rally to challenge the regime.

Instead, that regime flexed its muscles. It put out enough security forces to stop any gathering outside the headquarters of the opposition Al Wefaq party, and --- rather than giving any ground to criticism of its lengthy sentences for 20 doctors and nurses --- handed out prison terms to another 27 detainees. Among them were leaders of the opposition Islamic Action Society (Amal).

Those sentences follow 21 imposed last week on activists, and there is little sign, in contrast to the controversy over the punishment of the doctors and nurses, of international concern over the suppression of political opposition. 

In Syria, the display of protests against the Assad regime has been matched by a powerful speech by the country's leading Sunni cleric, Grand Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, at the funeral of his son Saria, who was shot dead in an ambush on Sunday. 

Hassoun, who has blamed foreign intervention for Syria's political conflict, requested,  "Saria, tell God the Arabs have created TV channels to kill each other." But he also asked President Assad, "Forgive those who lay down their arms, even the ones who killed my son," and declared, "We will kill your hate with our love."