Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Noticing the Political Prisoners

Tonight's demonstration in Tal Refaat in Aleppo Provice in Syria, expressing support for the opposition's National Unity Council

See also Bahrain Feature: The Regime's Public-Relations Army of US and British Consultants
Yemen Feature: Locals "We Have Bigger Problems Than Al Qa'eda"
Sunday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Trying to Stem the Protests

---

1947 GMT: An activist, claiming he was speaking from hiding, has said that Syrian troops have detained more than 3,000 people in the past three days in house-to-house sweeps in Rastan,.

The Syrian military reportedly occupied the town of 70,000 in Homs Province after a five-day assault last week. The activist said the detainees were being held at a cement factory, schools, and the Sports Club, a massive four-storey compound.

Syria's state-media said troops moved into Rastan to hunt down "armed terrorists".

Meanwhile, a funeral procession was held for the 21-year-old son of Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric, Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun.

Hassoun's son was killed on Sunday in an ambush in northern Syria. The cleric, considered a close supporter of the Assad regime, told hundreds of people attending the funeral at a mosque in Aleppo that dissenters working against Syria from abroad: "Come and say whatever you want here and if anyone rejects [you], I will be with you in the opposition.You want freedom, you want justice then come here and build it with us in Syria."

Hassoun blamed fatwas or religious edicts by unnamed clerics, living abroad, for the death of his son.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Report & Videos: Protests in 40 Villages on Friday, Man Dies From Tear Gas

Protest in Aldair on Friday

---

UPDATE 1115 GMT: EA sources provide translations of the speeches at the major rally in Bahrain on Friday, organised by five leading opposition parties/movements.

Fathel Abbas, the Security General of the National Democratic Assembly promised the audience, "You will transfer us from dictatorship to democracy”. He offered "deep greetings" to detained opposition figures and political prisoners: "Despite being in jail they are free. Our demands will never change."

Abbas welcomed President Obama's speech at the UN, which called for further reforms in Bahrain, and asked him and the British Government to take serious steps against any crackdown on the pro-democracy movement.

Saluting "the youth and families who are working to clean their villages and towns after the government failed to carry out its responsibilities", Abbas denied any sectarian division --- "there is only one struggle between the regime and the opposition" --- and emphasised the peaceful nature of the protest movement.

Jameel Khadhim, one of 18 MPs of the opposition Al Wefaq party who resigned in March, praised the audience for the effective boycott of Parliamentary by-elections last weekend and denounced the detention and abuse of protesters, including female demonstrators: "What the government is doing to our women has shocked the humanity, and it is far away from all our moral values and ethics." He added a message for the women, "A special thanks to your heroic stands that defeated many men", and thanks those who have protested the detentions.

Khadhim also denounced the sentences handed down on doctors on Thursday --- "their only crime was to treat the wounded from the citizens who fell by the 'brave' police gunfire" --- and continued:

After more than seven months of implementing the repressive security policy, and its utter failure, then the failure of the “Official Forum of Dialogue” as well as the unsuccessful strategy of paying media for incitement, and finally the huge failure in the last elections. I ask what is left to the authorities to do?

Our people do not accept any more living under the government that is plagued by corruption, and under a council of deficient powers and unfair electoral districts, as well as unfair justice and absent security.

Click to read more ...