Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Attack in Homs

Gunfire and explosions in Homs as defectors defend the city against the army

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EA Video Feature: A Tribute to Journalist Gilles Jacquier, Killed Today in Syria

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2103 GMT: A large protest in Idlib in Syria tonight:

And a mass rally in Khalidiya in Homs chants to the Arab League Secretary General "Nabil El Araby is a traitor":

2058 GMT: About 300 Syrian and foreign activists of the Freedom Convoy have been prevented by Turkish authorities from entering Syria to deliver humanitarian aid.

A representative from the group said they intend to stage a sit-in on the Turkish side of the border.

Meanwhile, Tehran has denied that four trucks being held by Turkish customs were carrying military equipment from Iran to Syria, as a spokesman for Turkey's Foreign Ministry said an investigation was still in progress.

The trucks were confiscated on Tuesday in Turkey's southeast province of Kilis at the Oncupinar border crossing into Syria.

2022 GMT: A prominent Saudi blogger Ahmed Al Omran shares three videos, reportedly showing "shabiha" firing down on the city of Homs, in the Bab Tadmor district, earlier today:

1921 GMT: A larger picture has been posted of the severe facial injury sustained by Nader Abdul Emam, reportedly at the hands of police who were disrupting tonight's protest march in Manama.

1911 GMT: According to activists, both Zainab alKhawaja and Nabeel Rajab sat down in front of the riot police before the march was disrupted:

Then Zainab alKhawaja Tweets this:

Manama is filled with tear gas, protesters running in all directions followed by shooting and riot police on foot

The same officer who was "carrying" nabeel in the MOI video told @NABEELRAJAB "you are all animals"

Now, Zainab alKhawaja is reporting injuries:

Injury of activist @NaderAbdulEmam who was participating in the #manamamarch

1903 GMT: There are more reports that the protest in Manama, Bahrain, was disrupted by police.

Before that, Sayed Mohamed posts this video of rights activist Nabeel Rajab among the protesters:

Another video of the crowd gives an appreciation for how many turned out tonight. They chant, honk, and hammer out the pattern, "Down, Down, Hamad!"

A more ominous video, this shows the size of the police force headed towards the marchers:

Activist Zainab alKhawaja posts these two pictures, showing protesters defying the police:

1851 GMT: It appears the answer to our question in the previous entry is "Yes". Reports and videos indicate that police, for the second time in six days, have attacked a march in Manama, including activists Nabeel Rajab and Zainab Alkhawaja.

1801 GMT: Will there be a repetition of last week's events, in which Bahraini police attacked a march after failed to convince Nabeel Rajab to turn it back? Zainab Alkhawaja sends the message: "Now riot police infront of us. This protest is 'illegal' they say. Nabeel Rajab says you never give us permits for peaceful protests."

1751 GMT: A march is underway in Manama in Bahrain, taking the same route before it was attacked by security forces last Friday.

Activist Zainab Alkhawaja sends updates via Twitter:

Nabeel Rajab [head of the Bahrain Center of Human Rights] passing by the spot he was beaten last week, with many protesters behind him. Close to Alkhawaja mosque now.

Crowds welcome Nabeel Rajab with chants of down down [King] Hamad!! Crowd definitely more than a 1000 now.

1706 GMT: Two significant updates from the LCCS - The first, that 22 have been killed today by security forces, "including two defected recruits. Eight martyrs in Idlib ” 2 Saraqeb, Sarjeh, Areha,Marshoren”, Nine in Homs, three in Deir Ezzor and one in each of Hama, and Douma (Damascus Suburbs)."

The second is potentially even more significant, that there has been a large defection in Homs:

All the officers and soldiers in Wadi Al-Sayeh neighborhood defected and joined the Free Army in Khaldieh neighborhood, the sitters are celebrating there.

1631 GMT: The Secretary General of the Arab League, while condemning the actions of the Syrian regime, seems to be trying to argue that it is not the Arab League's responsibility to take action. At the same time, he seemed to insinuate that the European nations will not act because they don't have enough selfish incentives.

Nabil al-Arabi, in an interview with the Egypt-based Hayat TV channel, said while there is no “magic wand” to solve the Syrian crisis, sanctions and other pressuring factors may force the Assad regime to succumb and halt violence against protesters and dissidents.

“Syria does not spur incentives for other countries that sell weapons to interview,” he said, adding, “it does not have oil. There is also U.S. elections, therefore I do not think they [Americans] are interested in entering a military adventure in Syria.”

1618 GMT: Multiple videos, taken by multiple cameramen, have been posted, showing this man who appears to have been shot in the Bab al Dreib district of Homs, today. We share the clearest one below, but there is another video that shows a man speaking to the cameraman, where they say that they cannot retrieve the body because of the nearly-constant gunfire.

1538 GMT: Even more videos from Homs. This first shows gunfire in, we believe, the southern part of the Deir Baalbe district of Homs:

But this video was reportedly taken in Bab Sbaa. Many sources are reporting that the fighting earlier was very widespread:

This video reportedly shows some kind of shell, reportedly fired by the military, that has landed on a rooftop in the Juret Al Shayah district, to the west-south-west of those other videos:

1529 GMT: At the top of this page have posted another video, reportedly showing fires, gunfire, and explosions in the city of Homs today.

1516 GMT: We're still watching the livestream from Homs (see below) though it appears to have just ended. With an overcast sky, widespread power outages, and an early sunset, it is now very dark in the city. Amid periodic gunfire and explosions, the narrator called for international intervention.

Restarting the stream, however, gets far more interesting. There appears to be nearly constant gunfire and explosions. Several fires also appear to burn in the city below.

1510 GMT: According to the Local Coordinating Committees of Syria, the death toll today stands at 18, having increased rapidly over the last hour. The casualties include:

Two defected recruits. Seven martyrs in Idlib, "2 [in] Saraqeb, Sarjeh, Areha, Marshoren", Six in Homs, three in Deir Ezzor and one in each of Hama, and Douma (Damascus Suburbs)

1505 GMT: BREAKING - an activist has shared this live stream, reportedly a battle between defectors (under the banner of the Free Syria Army) and the Syrian regular army in ther Deir Balba district of Homs, close to Khalidya.

1457 GMT: In Yemen, thousands have taken to the streets today in order to protest against the GCC deal that granted President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity in exchange for stepping down.

Meanwhile, in a separate conflict, 20 people were killed today in fighting between Zaidi Shiite rebels and Sunni Salafists:

Fighting between the Sunni fundamentalists and the Huthi rebels had raged over the past months in the northern town of Dammaj, south of Saada, where a Salafist Islamic teaching school was besieged by Huthi rebels.

At least 71 people were killed in clashes that erupted in mid-October, a spokesman for the Dar al-Hadith school claimed in late December.

The school trains Sunni preachers and believes in the strictest and most draconian interpretations of Islam.

1446 GMT: The LCCS also reports that during a funeral for someone killed by security forces, gunfire erupted when the procession was attacked by security. According to LCCS, Mohammed Masaaoud, 23 years old, was killed in the incident. They have posted this video, reportedly showing gunfire and explosions in the streets of Deir Ez Zor:

1414 GMT: The Local Coordinating Committees are reporting that 8 have been killed by security forces thus far, " including two defected recruits. Four martyrs in Idlib, two in Homs and one in each of Hama and Douma (Damascus Suburbs)."

In their latest report, a village outside of Jisr Al Shughour, Idlib, is being shelled by security forces, there is a large protest at the University of Aleppo's faculties of Mechanics and Education, and there is this report from Nouaimeh, Daraa:

Daraa: Nouaimeh: 20 soldiers on a checkpoint defected with their weapons among them are 10 snipers who were deployed on rooftops.

1355 GMT: James Miller takes the liveblog.

Many are doubting the official Syrian government's narrative on the death of journalist Gilles Jacquier.

First of all, the LCCS was already reporting heavy military activity in the city, before the death of Jacquier. This report is from the Qusoir district, which is several neighborhoods away from Zahra, where Jacquier died (see a map of Homs).

Homs: Large numbers of the Army accompanied by branches of Al-Hal Market checkpoint are raiding the Qousoor neighborhood. Many stores have been destroyed and vandalized. Houses have been shot at. Heavy armed security forces are firing RPG and heavy machine guns in the city market and searching everyone in sight

Other activists were reporting tanks firing shells at approximately the same time as the Jacquier story was breaking, though exactly where the tanks were located is unknown to us, and we're not sure whether the reports came in before or after the death of the French reporter.

In other words, so far there is no single piece of evidence that is a "smoking gun." However, many outside rights organizations have implicated foul play on the part of the Syrian government, and several journalists who were near Jacquier at the time of the attack have expressed their own doubts.

The Guardian carries a report from a French journalist who was nearby:

Speaking to Europe 1 radio, Jacques Duplessy said he wondered if the entire incident had been a "trap".

"I think we were royally manipulated.

"It wasn't a freak incident at all because after those four shells, there was nothing more. It was over: no attack, no shooting."

Duplessy said he was suspicious of the Syrian state media's rapid response.

"Syrian television was everywhere- three cameras. They filmed everything...One wonders if it was actually a trap, if it wasn't a deliberate attack on journalists."

He added: "Of course, we know nothing. We have no proof."

Thierry Thuillier, head of news at France Télévisions, ruled out such ideas. "It seems to me to be really premature to be talking of manipulation," he said.

1040 GMT: Egypt's official religious authority Al-Azhar has said that the handover of power from the military must happen “on schedule and without delay” and that the trials of former regime officials must be accelerated.

The statement was issued at the conclusion to a national dialogue conference run by Al-Azhar, the leading Sunni authority in the Muslim world, to discuss “regaining the spirit of the revolution and completing its goals".

The statement emphasised the importance of the army "returning to its original role of protecting Egypt's borders and national security" and of the state’s responsibility to tend to the needs and rights of martyrs' families and injured protesters.

The conference reportedly included 40 key political and religious figures including Coptic Christian Patriarch Pope Shenouda III, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie as well as current Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri. Also present were Presidential contenders Amr Moussa and Mohamed Selim El-Awa, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Mohamed Abou El-Ghar, head of the Wafd Party, El-Sayed El-Badawy as well as newly-elected parliamentarian and head of Al-Adl Party, Mustafa El-Naggar and head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, Ahmed Said.

1008 GMT: As the regime-linked Bahraini outlet Gulf Daily News cheerleads the reception of judges by King Hamad, "King stresses independence of judiciary," a Bahraini activist asks, "How can the King of Bahrain 'resolve to ensure the independence' of the judiciary when the Chief Justice is his cousin?"

1000 GMT: Ian Black of The Guardian, who is in Syria, offers an overview of yesterday's events in Homs, in which French journalist Gilles Jacquiet and eight other people died in a RPG or mortar attack:

The Guardian was also in Homs on Wednesday, but in a separate group from Jacquier, and until a few minutes before the attack had been at the place where he died, near the al-Ahali hospital in the Ikrameh quarter. Film of the incident shot by the pro-regime Addounia TV showed chaotic scenes as the injured were carried into cars and taxis. One of Jacquier's companions said a grenade fell close to the journalists after they had spoken to some young people and fled into a building. A Dutch journalist was among more than 25 people who were injured.

0610 GMT: Wednesday's headlines from Syria were seized by the attacks in Homs, the third-largest city and a centre of opposition to the Assad regime, that killed at least nine people, including French journalist Gilles Jacquier. 

The incident occurred as foreign reporters were being escorted by Syrian officials on a tightly-controlled tour of the city. An AFP journalist said "a shell" had hit near the group; Syrian State media is claiming a mortar attack.

Both the regime and the opposition are seeking political advantage from the high-profile incident. After an Arab League observer quit his post and denounced Syrian authorities for "making fools" of the monitors, the opposition is claiming that regime supporters are not only threatening the observers but are waging unrestricted violence, even when Syrian authorities are claiming to co-operate with the media in showing the "real" situation.

Regime media, in contrast, are portraying the attack as proof of the "terrorists" whom President Assad, in his Tuesday speech, claimed were threatening his genuine attempts at reforms. Meanwhile, the State's outlets are trying to hold focus on Assad, who appeared in front of a Damascus rally on Wednesday --- "We are victorious against conspiracy" --- and the "mass crowds" who supposedly turned out across Syria to show their support.