Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Conflict In the Capital?

An armoured anti-aircraft gun fires at unknown targets in the Damascus suburb of Douma on Saturday

See also Syria 1st-Hand Feature: So While You Were Sleeping....
James Miller speaks to Al Jazeera about the Free Syrian Army
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: More Opposition, in More Places

---

1805 GMT: A Turkish court has imprisoned five people suspected of turning over Colonel Hussein Harmush, who defected and established an insurgent brigade in Turkey, to Syrian authorities.

The defendants include a member of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT). They are being investigated for “political espionage” and for deprivation of liberty of Harmush and another man who were allegedly taken from a refugee camp near the Syrian border “by force” and handed over to Syrian security forces.

In June 2011, Harmush became the first Syrian military officer to publicly declare his opposition to the Assad regime. He then established the Brigade of Free Officers.

1755 GMT: In Bahrain, marchers have tried to reach Pearl Roundabout/Martyrs Square, the centre of last year's protests until it was overrun by security forces in March. Demonstrators included Nabeel Rajab, the head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, and Zainab Alkhawaja, who gave a victory sign before she was reportedly arrested.

In her last tweets, Alkhawaja --- also imprisoned in December --- posted a photograph of Rajeeb and his family and sent the message, "Police now threatning to shoot us":

1740 GMT: In an interview with Der Spiegel, Bahrain's King Hamad has dismissed the notion of a unified opposition and claimed the threat of Iran forced him to call in a Saudi-led outside force to help put down protests last spring.

The king said, "In a sense there is no 'opposition' in Bahrain, as the phrase implies one unified block with the same views. Such a phrase is not in our constitution, unlike say the United Kingdom. We only have people with different views and that's okay."

The monarch said the chant "Down, Down Hamad (Ttn, tn, tn)", sounded by trumpets and car horns was just bad manners and no cause for imprisonment; however, "when they shout 'Down with the King and up with [Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei', that's a problem for national unity."

Hamad said he brought in martial law, supported by the troops of Gulf Co-operation Council countries, because "our women were very scared and it is the duty of a gentleman to protect women, so I had to protect them". The outside troops were also necessary to protect "strategic installations...in case Iran would be more aggressive".

1720 GMT: A demonstration in the Hajar Aswad district of Damascus in Syria today:

1630 GMT: Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood has called for "jihad" against the Assad regime in Syria. The statement reads:

This duty requires all Muslims to support the [rebel] Free Syrian Army against the aggression of the regime's criminal and brutal forces.

The Free Syrian Army must continue to defend its nation and face the crimes of the regime.

1555 GMT: According to the Syrian State news agency SANA, President Assad has received a copy of the new draft Constitution from the head of a National Committee preparing it. Assad has said it will refer it to the People's Assembly before putting it to a referendum

1540 GMT: Arab states are reportedly preparing to end the observer mission to Syria, to ask the UN Security Council to tighten economic sanctions, to end all diplomatic cooperation with Damascus, and to send an international peacekeeping force.

1535 GMT: Leading activist and textile worker Kamal al-Fayoumy has been arrested in Egypt, accused of inciting disorder and planning acts of vandalism by calling on workers to join the general strike on Saturday.

1520 GMT: A demonstration in Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city:

1455 GMT: A crowd in Idlib Province in northwest Syria call President Assad an "agent of Shiite Iran" and demand that he leave office:

1440 GMT: Video of the Bab Amro district of Homs in Syria, with sounds of gunfire:

1415 GMT: Footage of regime soldiers who are reportedly defecting in Syria:

1345 GMT: In response to a Parliamentary question from the opposition Republican People's Party, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that establishing a buffer zone or a humanitarian corridor for Syria is not on the agenda now! However, he warned that the international comunity and regional countries must be ready for every possibility in an atmosphere of limbo. 

Interestingly, it was Mr. Davutoglu who said on Saturday that Ankara would start an initiative in the presence of the UN for a humanitarian operation to help Syrians suffering a "humanitarian tragedy." Is it a sharp manoeuvre in foreign policy or a tactical statement to calm down the opposition?

1330 GMT: The Confederation of African Football says it will give $150,000 to families of the 74 peole killed at a football match in Port Said in Egypt. The international federation FIFA has already said it will give $250,000 to the families. 

1300 GMT: An armed group in southern Yemen, Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) has executed two Saudis and one Yemeni for giving the US information that wa used to carry out drone strikes in the area. 

Yemeni security officials reports that another two Yemenis were executed by a group linked to al-Qaeda for collaboration with the Americans.

1230 GMT: An Arab League official told AFP that the head of a controversial Arab League observers mission to Syria, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, has resigned. 

1130 GMT: Israeli protestors during a protest in front of the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv on Saturday.

1100 GMT: Ali Yenidunya takes over the Live Coverage.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has released a YouTube video, backing the uprising in Syria and giving advice. Having called on Muslims to help "their brothers in Syria with life, money, opinion and information", he warned them not to rely on the West, Arab countries, and Turkey.

His rhetoric was sharp:

While Syria is bleeding day by day, the son of a buthcer, Assad, has no intention to stop! Despite the pain, the resistance of Syrian people is continuing and increasing.

If we want freedom, we must get rid of this Assad regime. If we want justice, we must retaliate against this regime. Continue with your uprising and keep your passion. Do not accept anything apart from respected and independent ones. 

1025 GMT: Maryam Abu Deeb, the daughter of the detained head of Bahrain's teachers' union, has tweeted that she will join her father in a hunger strike protest: "Dad has many reasons for going on a hunger strike, mainly for not being able to go back to Lulu (Pearl Roundabout) with you guys. I am doing it (the hungerstrike) because I can't handle the guilt of leaving Dad alone in this ."

0855 GMT: In Bahrain, dismissed workers --- upset at "false" claims by the Minister of Labour about they are able to resume their jobs --- gather in front of the Ministry of Labour:

0851 GMT: In an interview from Saturday, Dr Ali Al-Zahori talks about the bombardment of the Bab Amro section of Homs in Syria:

0837 GMT: The Malaysian Home Ministry has confirmed that Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari, who fled Saudi Arabia after calls for his arrest and even execution over three Twitter messages, has been deported.

Kashgari, who was detained in Malaysia on Thursday, left the country in the custody of Saudi officials.

Kashgari's "crime" was to imagine a conversation with the Prophet Mohammad in which they shook hands as equals.

See also Saudi Opinion: Hamza Kashgari, "Blasphemy", and the Two Sides of Islam

0727 GMT: Clarifying a story from Egypt on Saturday, thanks to this Al Jazeera English report:

>Egyptian police have arrested an Australian journalist, a US student and their Egyptian translator on suspicion of paying Egyptians to stage protests against the authorities, a security official said.

Austin Mackell, a freelance reporter, [student] Derek Ludovici, and [translator] Aliya Alwi were detained in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla on Saturday, the same day activists held student strikes to mark the first anniversary of the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak.

General Mostafa Baz, police chief of the northern Gharbiya province, told reporters the three were suspected of having co-ordinated over the internet to meet in Mahalla, which has a history of labour strikes, to "incite people to protest".

A security official said people in Mahalla had complained to police that all three were paying people to protest. The authorities have in the past blamed foreigners for plotting unrest.

Alwi said on her Twitter account that they were being charged with inciting protests and vandalism.

"Witnesses have been produced to confirm it," she wrote. "Report against us, filed now. Many witnesses saw us 'offering money to youth to vandalise and cause chaos'."

She tweeted on Saturday evening that they were being handed over to intelligence services. She has not sent any tweets since then....

0720 GMT: A big propaganda battle is shaping up in Bahrain over Saturday's arrest of foreign activists, including Palestinian-American Huweida Arraf. This morning, Arraf is refusing deportation and is appearing in court.

Two videos --- first, the police version of Arraf refusing to co-operate, followed by the raw footage (first posted on EA yesterday) of the security forces making arrests:

In Yemen on Saturday, a massive rally in Taiz marking one year of protest against the regime of President Saleh:

The news in Damascus is not just about protests. Widespread arrests were reported late last night, and gunfire and explosions have been heard in several neighborhoods and suburbs. This report, from Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, south of the capital, is from an area where unrest has been growing for weeks.

Al-Hajar Al-Aswad: Revolution Street and Freedom Square have been stormed by security forces and thugs, and barriers have been placed in the neighbourhood. Some families have evacuated as a result of the raids and threats. In addition, there has been a campaign of arrests that has been ongoing for days, nearly 200 men including 48 children have been detained. Some of the names of the detainees that have become known are: Ahmad Ismaeel, Hani Ismaeel, Alaa Shehab, Inraheem Shehabi, Waseem Aqla Ibraheem, Derar Shetewe, Yahya Majbal, Yaseen Mahmoud, Basim Alahmad, Khaled Khodor, Maher Aldaher, Musaab Aldaher, and Mohammad Almohammad.

0545 GMT: Aleppo was the focus of attention in Syria on Friday, with two bomb blasts, multiple neighbourhoods protesting, and 13 protesters killed by security forces. But the capital Damascus was host of the most important developments on Saturday.

A few miles to the northeast of Damascus, tanks have moved into Douma. In Madaya and Zabadani, 20 miles northwest of the capital, the Free Syrian Army has given up considerable amounts of territory as a massive convoy of tanks, armor, and troops threaten the position that the FSA has held for several weeks.

There are now daily, and nightly, protests in some very important neighbourhoods of the capital. They are small in scale, but growing in size and in brazenness. The Coalition of Free Damascenes for Peaceful Change post several videos, a few of which we have featured below, that match news from other sources --- as the one-year anniversary of the start of the Arab Spring is remembered, and as many cities across Syria are besieged, Damascus is no longer free from protest, and it is no longer quiet.

Protests have not reached the levels which we have seen in other cities --- that remains impossible, thanks to the heavy security in Damascus --- but the opposition in the capital is growing.

The Barzeh district, near regime buildings, was host to this impressively-large protest last night:

Another impressive protest was held near the Hadi Mosque in Kafer Souseh, less than a mile south of the centre of Assad's power:

And on the other side of the city, in the central Midan district, there was a different kind of protest. Reminiscent of the nightly chanting in Tehran, Iran in 2009, many residents chanted from rooftops and open windows, "Allahu Akbar (God is Great)":