Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Blanket of Tear Gas, A Battle in Homs

Security forces wear gas masks to protect against effects of tear gas during clashes in Bahrain on Thursday night

See also Bahrain Feature: The Clouds of Tear Gas and Death Gather Once More
Syria 1st-Hand: Getting Behind the Stories of "Revolution"
Syria Video Special: Free Syrian Army Captures "Iranian Soldiers"
Thursday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Insurrection?

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2240 GMT: An EA correspondent in Bahrain reports that Sitra looked like a "war zone" today:

"Sitra was heavily attacked today I spend the time trying to get trapped people out. People who are not from Sitra doesn't know all the inner roads..I had to drive around trying to get some of them out... [because many roads were blocked by police].

"This used to be kind of safe before police started attacking and hitting the cars! Today finished fine, so let's hope I keep on being lucky!

"I am getting news that there are some searious injuries too...but can't check now since it's late."

Our correspondent also sends us a video that he describes as a montage of the police attack on mourners in Waydan village. Several other sources also reported that the video was legitimate:

2230 GMT: This video was reportedly taken earlier today in Daraa, Syria. It is important for several key reasons. First of all, it's dramatic:

The building seen is clearly under the control of the military. It is surrounded by vehicles and soldiers, none of whom appear to be hiding as if they are threatened in any way. Also, the soldier on the roof is clearly shooting to kill. At the end of the video, he opens fire and you can hear the bullets hit near the cameraman. Then the video ends.

The soldier in the middle floor, however, is interesting. He does not appear to be firing at anything, as his aim is very high. Also, he is outside of the direct observation of his peers, though they can, no doubt, hear his weapon. Many defecting soldiers report that soldiers who are too afraid to defect will not fire at protesters but may fire over their heads.

2155 GMT: Disturbing news from the LCCS, that 8 bodies have been found in Mesraba, an embattled suburb of Damascus:

Eight martyrs and dozens of wounded have been discovered in a new massacre committed by security forces and army. Some of the martyrs have been identified as: Abdo Khouly, Hisham Haji, Abed al-Karam Mahjoub, Mouhamed Moustafa Qudeh, Mouhamed Hawera along with three unidentified corpses

2147 GMT: Bahraini activists report that the police continued to launch teargas attacks on various villages well into the night. This picture was reportedly taken earlier near a mosque in Ma'ameer:

Also, a picture has been circulating Twitter, reportedly showing the a woman who was shot in the face with some sort of "less than lethal" bullet, perhaps rubber. There is no way to verify the claim as of right now.

2117 GMT: Two videos have surfaced, reportedly taken today in Rankous, north of Damascus. The video below shows the small city ringed with tanks, and there are sounds that could be shelling and machine guns. The second, taken from a separate camera and uploaded to a separate Youtube account, shows more tanks surrounding the city:

2050 GMT: Even at this late hour, the LCCS reports that battles continue in the northeastern suburbs of Damascus. This report is from Douma:

Violent clashes between the Free Syrian Army and the regime’s forces in Misraba and Sundyaneh and renewed rounds of gunfire are heard from Hasser Misraba checkpoint along with machine guns. A demonstration began from Qutly, near the mourning site for the martyr Yaseen al-Rayhaney at the Grand Mosque

2018 GMT: The Local Coordinating Committees of Syria report that 60 have been killed today nationwide, "including 3 children, 3 women, and 3 defected soldiers from Daraa. The remainders of the distributions are as follows: 11 in Nawa Village, 19 in Homs, 9 in Aleppo, 13 in Idlib, 7 in Damascus Suburbs (Douma, Saqba, and Hamorieh), 2 in Hama, 1 in Tafes, 1 in Damascus."

The LCCS tends to be conservative in their estimates because they validate each reported death with their own sources, but other groups reported as many as 96 deaths today.

Peering inside the LCCS's numbers, we see that many were killed in Nawa, a village in Daraa province. The deaths in Idlib, Homs, and the Damascus suburbs may not have been entirely unpredicted, as many protesters have been killed recently, and the Free Syrian Army is actively defending these locations from security forces. The addition of this many casualties in Nawa village could mean that there is a new hotspot of unrest developing there. Also, the government of Syria should be seriously concerned about the continual increase of unrest in the suburbs and countryside of Aleppo. With Idlib only a little more than an hours drive away, the city of Aleppo is now surrounded by territory that is a stronghold of the oppositions. And protests inside the city are also on the rise.

2000 GMT: This video was reportedly taken today in al Duraz village, Bahrain. A police officer can be seen firing teargas (at what? at one point someone whistles the rhythm of "down, down Hamad.") while clouds of teargas roll by:

1926 GMT: It's been a very bloody day, though it is hard to know exactly how many have died today. The LCCS has not updated their latest tally in several hours. However, Al Arabiya, citing the Syrian General Council of the Revolution, is reporting that 96 have been killed today. The Syrian Uprising 2011 Information Center says that 80 have died, and they have provided a map of today's events with this caveat:

The placemarks shows the protests which are documented by videos and are put online, a lot of protests took place and are not YET placed on the map either because they have no electricity or internet or both.

View Syria - Friday 27/01/2012 in a larger map

Towns with reported protests are marked in blue. Towns on strike are marked in yellow. Towns with updates alone are marked in green. Red markers show places which are under attack or where martyrs fell today.

1832 GMT: As we continue to investigate the case of the captured Iranian engineer/soldiers in Syria (see our latest updates), a former auditor for the Syrian military has said that the Syrian government was paying Iranian snipers, some affiliated with Hezbollah, as military "consultants," but their real job was to act kill protesters and members of the opposition:

SYRIA is deploying large numbers of Hezbollah and Iranian snipers as "military consultants" to murder anti-regime protesters, a senior government defector has told The Times.

The salaries of the marksmen are paid through a slush fund replenished with US dollars flown in from Iran, according to Mahmoud Haj Hamad, who was the treasury's top auditor at the Defence Ministry until he fled Syria last month.

The same fund is used to pay the Shabiha, the gangs of thugs who have joined the state security services in torturing and killing protesters...

"The Syrian intelligence weren't qualified, they didn't have decent snipers or equipment," he said in an interview. "They needed qualified snipers from Hezbollah and Iran."

Both have tight military ties with the regime of President Assad, a member of the Alawite sect, a sub-group of the Shia branch of Islam.

Mr Hamad said: "At the beginning there were hundreds, then when things started to get worse they started to bring in more outsiders. The numbers were huge - in the thousands."

1813 GMT: An important video out of Bahrain - activists pointed us in the direction of this footage that appears to show a man, working near police, throwing molotov cocktails into homes. The police watch him and do not stop him, and the molotovs appear to be stored on the ground near the police jeep:

1732 GMT: Two more pictures from Sitra, Bahrain. The first, posted by an activist, shows the funeral for Mohammed Ebrahim Yaghoob:

The second photo is provided by the opposition party AlWefaq, showing massive amounts of teargas over Sitra:

So what's the problem? Blogger Marc Owen Jones lists 20 people whose deaths may have been caused by teargas in Bahrain; not an airtight case, Jones argues, but certainly cause to launch an investigation.

1727 GMT: The LCCS reports that 46 have been killed so far today, "including 3 children and three women, 11 martyrs in Nawa- Daraa, 13 martyrs in Homs, 9 martyrs in Aleppo, 4 martyrs in idlib, 6 martyrs in Damascus Suburb (Douma, Saqba, Hamouria) in addition to 2 martyrs in Hama." The two day death toll, then, has reached 135.

The number of documented martyrs who fell today and yesterday from being shot by security forces and army, has reached 135 martyrs, including 18 children and 8 women. Most of the martyrs were killed by security forces' gunfire and army shelling in Homs, dozens also fell in Hama and Daraa

1705 GMT: An impressive video from Hama, a town that has been sieged for many days, and has paid an extremely steep price since the start of the uprisings. The protesters at the anti-Assad demonstration chant, "We want to execute him, his regime has fallen..."

Last night, the Local Coordinating Committees released a statement, complete with graphic videos, claiming that yet another "Hama Massacre" had occurred, and 23 bodies had been discovered dumped in various locations across the city.

1601 GMT: There have been more "scuffles" between Islamist revolutionaries in Cairo, Egypt. Abdel Rahman Hussein describes the scene in Tahrir for The Guardian:

Anger spilled over at the Muslim Brotherhood stage after Quran verses from a loud drowned out chants against the military rulers. Protesters began chanting traitors at those on stage and threw garbage and bottles.

Many speakers went onstage - not all from the Brotherhood - in an attempt to calm protesters but to no avail. Around the stage members of the Brotherhood held a cordon around it. They were asked to remove their green Freedom and Justice Party caps by those onstage. Even after some on the stage chanted against military rule they still were jeered.

1554 GMT: With battles raging just a few miles to the south, a very large crowd of protesters fill a central square outside a mosque in Douma, Damascus, to protest the Assad government:

1532 GMT: The Guardian reports that Saudi Arabia has formally recognized the Syrian National Council as the official representatives of the Syrian people. Beyond this, Saudi's Arab News, which typically tows a government line, has posted an editorial calling for UN intervention to end the Syrian conflict:

It is clear that the sooner this growing tragedy can be referred to the United Nations and the international community can be persuaded to support firm action against the Assad regime, the more lives will be spared. At the moment this looks like a conflict that can only escalate, with potentially grievous consequences, not simply for all Syrians, but the wider region.

Turkey is particularly concerned. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu this week repeated his country's call that Assad must stop using main force against his own people. It was significant that the Turkish politician was in Moscow when he spoke. Russia continues to support Damascus, both politically and with arms - in 2010 Syria accounted for $700 million of Russia's $10 billion international weapons sales. A top Russian diplomat this week claimed, against all the evidence, that the presence of the League monitors was a "stabilizing factor" in the country. Risking its relations with the wider Arab world, Moscow is expected to continue to block any UN resolutions that will form around the proposed Arab League peace plan.

The full editorial can be found here.

1515 GMT: According to the LCCS, 33 have already died today in Syria, "among them are: 2 children and 3 women, 11 marytyrs in the town of Nawa in Daraa, 10 martyrs in Homs, 6 martyrs in Aleppo, 3 martyrs in Idlib, 2 martyrs in the Damascus Suburbs, and a martyr in Hama." That number is almost guaranteed to rise, however.

The LCCS reports that elements from the Free Syrian Army have clashed with the regular army in the Damascus suburb of Mesraba, between Douma and Irbeen. In a second report, the local Coordinating Committees report that the conflict has also spread to Ain Tarma and Harmaleh. We've put the approximate locations (as far as we can decipher) on the map below. If the reports are accurate (and many reports of violence are emerging in the general area) it suggests that, once again, a large swatch of suburbs just outside the capital city are currently hosting a battle:

View Mesraba in a larger map

1455 GMT: James Miller takes today's coverage, thanks to Scott Lucas for taking us through the morning.

A leading Bahraini activist tweets, "Shooting tear gas at houses in Sitra after police forces attacked the funeral of Mohamed Ebrahim"

1329 GMT: An EA source, who was at today's funeral in Bahrain for Mohammed Ebrahimi Yaghoob (see 1249 GMT), sends a brief message, "They attacked. Hiding in a home now. They shot inside the graveyard."

1309 GMT: The latest from Syria....

<>Activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, without giving details, that a car bomb hit a security checkpoint at the entrance of the northwestern city of Idlib today.

A protest today in Aleppo:

Bassma Kodmani, the spokeswoman for the opposition Syrian National Council, has said that the SNC is ready to give money and equipment to insurgents inside Syria: "The SNC is now mapping who the groups are on the ground in Syria and Turkey. We have military experts, former Syrian military, who are mapping where they are and linking them into some form of command chain."

Kodmani said the SNC will not assist in providing arms since it opposes attacks on individual targets or buildings.

Kodmani, speaking in Paris, said the insurgents number between 20,000 and 30,000 in Syria and about 300 in neighboring Turkey: "They need communications equipment, bullet-proof vests and non-offensive equipment to make sure they are integrated with each other. If they are left isolated, they will transform into militias."

A protest in Halfaya in Hama Province today:

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that at least 384 children have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the uprising on 15 March. About the same number have been jailed.

1249 GMT: The start of the funeral procession in Bahrain for 17-year-old Mohammed Ebrahim Yaghoob, who died in police custody on Wednesday night:

1247 GMT: A demonstration in Amuda in northeast Syria today:

Nimr in Horan Province in the south:

1119 GMT: In Egypt, about 10,000 people have reportedly gathered in Tahrir Square in Cairo for Friday Prayers and demonstrations.

Ahram Online is providing live updates.

1110 GMT: An anti-regime protest in the Khaddam section of Damascus this morning:

1105 GMT: Photojournalist Mazen Mahdi has reported from Bahrain, "Police locked down roads to Duraz ahead of Friday prayers --- roads to Sitra locked down also ahead of funeral. Sitra residents are also blocked from entering and police telling them they won't let them in before evening!"

1025 GMT: The family of 17-year-old Mohammad Ebrahim Yaghoob react to seeing his body --- Ebrahim Yaghoob died on Wednesday, allegedly after he was struck by a police jeep (see 0615 GMT):

1020 GMT: In Iraq, police and hospital sources say at least 29 people were killed and about 60 were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a Baghdad marketplace on Friday.

"The suicide car bomber failed to arrive at the Zaafaraniya police station so he blew himself up close to shops and the market," an official said. The funeral was for a Shi'ite real estate agent who was killed by gunmen in Baghdad a day earlier.

1010 GMT: Activists claim that Syrian forces continued their assault upon Homs in a pre-dawn attack, killing three people, as explosions and steady gunfire were heard in several neighborhoods.

The fighting began late Thursday in the Karm al-Zeitoun neighborhood, according to the Local Coordination Committees. Regime troops then hit the Bab al-Sibaa neighborhood with heavy artillery and rocket fire, and there were sounds of intense fighting coming from the Baba Amro neighborhood.

The LCC also said two people were killed in Idleb province in the northwest and one died in the Damascus suburbs.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Hama was attacked in the early hours of Friday, with intense firing from heavy machine guns and explosions.

Sounds of shelling in Khamidiya in Hama this morning:

0655 GMT: Saqer Alkhalifa, who recently returned to Bahrain from his post as Media Attaché at the Bahrain Embassy in Washington, reassures via Twitter, "Got the taste of tear gas up close (very up close) last night. There were tears, nose burns, but certainly no suffocation at all."

An EA source offers this: "I have already lost count of number of cars (passing by at the wrong time) which have been directly hit by TG canisters."

0615 GMT: We look towards another Friday of protests and probable clashes. 

So far, news is relatively quiet after a Thursday marked by more conflict in Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen. Our Thursday live coverage was vividly illustrated with Bahraini villages blanketed in tear gas, with an apparent escalation in the efforts of the security forces to suppress protests.

Four people died in clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday --- yesterday, the propaganda battle was over the fate of 17-year-old Mohammed Ebrahim Yaghoob, with activists claiming he died in hospital after he was struck by a police jeep and the regime claiming a death from sickle cell anemia --- and there were unconfirmed reports on Thursday of two more fatalities, with one person dying from tear gas inhalation and one hit by a police vehicle.

In Syria, the focus was on Homs, with security forces trying to control the city after pulling back from at least two towns earlier in the week. Video claimed to show regime soldiers defecting to the insurgents, with the crowd chanting, "The army and the people are one hand" and "May God protect the Free Syrian Army".

The shelling of Homs continued to knock down entire houses, and there was claimed video of civilians killed by plainclothes "shabiha" supporting President Assad's military. Activists claimed that at least 43 people died across at the hands of security forces on Thursday, including 30 in Homs.

In Yemen, at least 22 people were reportedly killed in clashes in the north between insurgent Houthis and fighters from a Salafist Sunni group.

Nine people died in Kataf and 13 died in Hajja in Saada Province.