Syria Live Coverage: How Will Protests Respond Today to More Deaths?

2048 GMT: Syria. Earlier, we heard a report that a mortar shell fell on a hospital in Douma, an important suburb just outside Damascus. Now, this video claims to show the heavy damage. It is unknown how many injuries or fatalities occurred as a result of this attack:

Hospitals in #Douma #RifDimashq being targeted by rockets & shells. youtu.be/8HC-u0B-vPQ #Syria

— Um Farouk(@Mou2amara) June 15, 2012

2008 GMT: Syria. I've been having a conversation with several bloggers, micro-bloggers, and activists about improvised weapons and mortars being used by the Free Syrian Army. It's clear that the FSA is increasingly finding ways of going on the offense against the Syrian military, not just the defense. However, the video below, apparently showing a remote controlled bomb, could indicate that the FSA is using more sophisticated weapons against Assad military convoys and checkpoints:

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Syria Opinion: The Vatican's Dangerous Game On "Persecution" Plays Into Assad's Hands

UPDATE: Two news items signal that the Vatican has reversed course on this narrative, even after pushing the anti-opposition rhetoric harder in the last few days.

The first, and likely most important, news is that the Vatican's ambassador to Syria, Archbishop Nuncio Mario Zenari, has denied that Christians are being targeted by Sunnis. Archibishop Zenari said that for all people, "the descent into hell has started," and even cited UN reports of children being used as human shields.

Archbishop Zenari also signaled that the Church may be in a position to help negotiate:

"It is the Christians' mission to play the role of a link at all levels," he said.

"They're active in very painful situations, such as in Homs where we have priests, nuns and monks ... who are setting an example and risk their lives."

Concerning the issue raised in my original article (below), the Archbishop dismissed claims that Sunnis in the opposition were targeting Christians.

So far, I would say that Christians share the same sad fate as all Syrians (...) I would not say that they are the object of particular discriminations, less so persecutions," said Zenari.

The lot of Christians in Syria today does not compare to that in other countries in the region, he said. "Sometimes it is compared to Iraq, but you cannot compare this."

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Syria Feature: Who and What are the Shabiha? (Keller)

Shabiha pursuing protesters at Aleppo University, 16 May 2012

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"Women, children and old men were shot dead," Syria's foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, told reporters this week. "This is not the response of the heroic Syrian army."

Then who did kill 108 people in Houla, including 49 children, in cold blood? The answer appears to lie with the armed civilian militias from nearby Alawite villages, who are known to Syrians as shabiha, from the Arabic word for ghosts.

The term initially referred to shadowy gangs of smugglers who grew up around the coastal city of Latakia in the 1970s, and whose immunity from law seemed to come from their tribal and village connections to the ruling Assad family.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "A Divided and Dangerous City"

State TV footage of scene of this morning's double explosion in Syrian capital Damascus (see 0655 GMT)

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2130 GMT: Palestine. An official with Palestinian prisoners' rights group Addameer has said that Israel's prison service has offered to ease restrictions on Palestinian prisoners in a bid to end a mass hunger strike.

About 1,600 Palestinian prisoners are fasting to protest administrative detention, under which Israel can hold people indefinitely without charge. They are also challenging solitary confinement, detention without charge and restrictions on family visits, education, and other privileges.

Two of those protesting, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla, are on th 72nd day of hunger strikes.

The Addameer official said, after a meeting on Wednesday night in Nafha Prison between the Prison Service and leaders of the hunger strike, "There might be a positive response in the next few days." She said the Prison Service "agreed to allow visits for families from Gaza" and to revoke a range of restrictions on prisoners, including a ban on education and other privileges. She added that an agreement on moving prisoners out of solitary confinement was also on the table.

Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman confirmed the Nafha meeting, saying it was part of an ongoing process of consultations between detainees and a committee examining prison conditions.

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Syria Snap Analysis: Deir Ez Zor & Human Rights Watch

http://tgr.ph/GAmbSCThis is a comment on the article I wrote last night, Syria Special: Welcome to Phase Two Insurgency, responding to today's news.

Basically, I argue that the Free Syrian Army has reached a new level of sophistication in their attacks, and have entered a stage that will be characterized by ambush attacks, improvised explosive devices, and other guerrilla tactics. I also respond to Joshua Landis' claim that we are likely to see more terrorism and a move towards a more sectarian opposition. Basically, I argue that the terrorism that is on the rise in Syria doesn't seem to be directly linked to the main-stream opposition (a major difference from Iraq or Afghanistan) and so far the most sectarian violence is evident in Homs and Idlib, but it is fairly isolated.

But there are two developments today that intersect my article.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Aid Delivered, but No Relief for Homs

2055 GMT: This may look like fireworks on a black screen, but it was posted by the LCCS who say that it was taken tonight in Qorieh, Deir Ez Zor. According to multiple sources, there is heavy fighting in the area, and we've been hearing unconfirmed reports that the battles between the Free Syrian Army and the Assad forces stretch as far north as Deir Ez Zor.

2037 GMT: The US Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, has posted more declassified satellite photos showing the extent of the crisis in Syria:

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Syria Video Special: Interview of Paul Conroy, Survivor of Baba Amr

Sky News interviews The Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy, injured in the attack in Baba Amr, Homs, that killed American journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

See Also Syria Opinion: "There Are Many Others Who Await Homs' Fate"
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Assad Will Have to Kill Us All"

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The Guardian partially transcribes the interview:

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Assad Will Have to Kill Us All"

2134 GMT: Amazing videos of night protests in Syria - the first, a VERY large protest in Soran, Hama:

Next, the LCCS shares this video from the Hamadiyah district of Hama:

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Syria Opinion: "There Are Many Others Who Await Homs' Fate"

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The images from Homs are intense, the stories gripping, and the scale and veracity of the violence there is disturbing. But remember when seeing these images and hearing these stories that Homs is just one city, and there are many others that resemble what Homs looked like only two months ago. There are many other areas that are awaiting Homs' fate.

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Syria Feature: Homs --- Dying Without Food, Medicine, or Supplies (Damon and Korouny and Lee)

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Last week "Sammy", an activist in Homs, concluded an interview with EA's James Miller, "I do not know what the world is waiting for. Is it a terrorist group, or a revolution?....At least they need to send relief, to help the humanitarian situation. We need humanitarian aid."

This morning we post two videos and an article about the situation inside Syria's besieged city. At the top of the entry, CNN's Arwa Damon reports from Baba Amr in Homs on the lack of food and other essentials and the efforts to get supplies to the population.

Below, Mariam Korouny writes for Reuters about the crisis, and Al Jazeera English posts a video report by Laurence Lee about the deaths and shortages.

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