Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Protest in the Heart of Damascus

2039 GMT: But for all the reports of violence, we've received 10 reports of protests. This video shows a cute little girl leading an evening protest in the Qarabis district of Homs:

This crowd chants anti-regime protests in Jiza, Daraa:

2024 GMT: It's after 10 pm in Syria, but reports continue to come in that the crackdown continues. The LCCS reports that is Kiswah, outside of Damascus, police have conducted house-to-house raids, arresting many, in response to a student protest earlier in the day. A large explosion rocked the Daraa alBalad neighborhood of Daraa, followed by heavy gunfire. And in Latminah, Hama, a 47-year-old father of 4 was reportedly tortured to death after being arrested.

Click to read more ...

Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Turmoil and Confusion

Activist montage of the march today in Sitra in Bahrain for 16-year-old Ali Alsatrawi, killed last week by a police jeep, and the attack on it by security forces

See also Bahrain Video Diary, Part 3: The Freedom Torch Marches To Its Final Destination"
Monday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: "The Government Wants the People To Become More Violent"
Monday's Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Newest Battle of Tahrir Square

---

2145 GMT: Numerous reports from Tahrir Square in Cairo are indicating "the most potent tear gas yet".

Discussion is pointing to the use by Egyptian security forces of CR gas, whose "effects are approximately 6 to 10 times more powerful than those of CS gas".

The gathering in Alexandria tonight:

Click to read more ...

Egypt, Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Democracy's Discontents

Egyptian police beat protesters --- note the man knocked unconscious by a baton --- and drag them away, including one by the hair, just off Tahrir Square

See also Syria Feature: The Spectre of Civil War in Homs
Bahrain 1st-Hand Special: Security Forces Break Up a Teenager's Funeral
Saturday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The "Forgotten" Protests That Never Went Away

---

2125 GMT: A mass rally in Hama in Syria tonight:

2045 GMT: A protester throws back a tear gas canister in Tahrir Square in Cairo this afternoon:

Click to read more ...

Middle East/North Africa Analysis: The Rise of a "Civic Islamism"? (Sadiki)

Rachid Ghannounchi, leader of Tunisia's EnnadhaCivic Islamism is linked with the novelty of the context, the Arab Spring, and the new dynamic of legalised Islamism as in Egypt and Tunisia. Civic Islamism displays features of impressive organisation for the contest of power, coupled with an aptitude to penetrate secular civil society through coalition-building with non-Islamists.

Only through inclusion, competition, participation and the tests of "power", will this force learn to moderate its politics, gradually learning to take its place amongst the progenitors of civic politics in the Arab spring states.

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Another Day of the "New Normal"

See also Bahrain 1st-Hand: Friday's "Festival of Loyalty" Opposition Rally
Arab Spring/Iran Special: Is This a Music-Driven Revolution?
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Spread of the Deaths

---

2125 GMT: Unconfirmed reports have come in that security forces have fired tonight on a protest in the Marjeh section of Aleppo --- footage of the crowd before the alleged incident:

Elsewhere in Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city and thought throughout this crisis to be behind Assad:

In Deir Ez Zor in the northeast:

And in Saramein in the northwest:

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Spread of the Deaths

A rally in Homs in Syria last night

See also Oman Feature: A Not-Quite-So-Quiet Arab State
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: "Did This Rocket Fall from Outer Space?"

---

0150 GMT: The Bahraini Ministry of Interior is now trying to explain how its policemen were not responsible for the attack on the house and car of the head of the Al-Wefaq opposition party, Sheikh Ali Salman, blaming protesters while shifting attention from authorities:. Here's the lengthy statement in full from the Ministry of Interior's website: 

The General Director of Northern Governorate Police has announced that at around 10:55 PM on Thursday around 60 individuals went into illegal procession in Bilad Al Qadeem with the aim to block roads and hinder traffic flow. They were also involved in vandalism, rioting and hurling Molotov cocktails and stones at policemen. This led to the interference of police forces to disperse them and reopen the roads by shooting tear gas and sound shoots. 

In regard of what was circulated by some individuals through social media websites claiming that the house and car of the General Secretary of Al Wefaq National Islamic Society were damaged by policemen, the General Director explained that vandals were 50 meters away from the house and there was a distance of around 50 meters between vandals and policemen, hence they were around 100 meters away from the house. Policemen used teargas and sound shoots and both are hurled by hand, so it is difficult for them to reach to the house and the car that was next to it. The shell...that was found inside the car is a [shell] that is hurled by the hand as it is shown in the image. 

He added that the concerned team moved to the scene, while no complaint was reported by those affected by the incident and that explains that those who created the damages bear the responsibility of what they did.

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Quiet? Not Really....

A march of young people in Taiz in Yemen today challenges the Saleh regime

See also Bahrain Video Feature: The Detention of the Athletes
Syria Video Special: Undercover With Those Challenging the Regime
Syria Audio Special: How Does This End?
Tuesday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Noticing Homs

---

2120 GMT: The presence of security forces in the Khalidiya section of Homs today:

Tadmur in Homs Province tonight:

Anadan in Aleppo Province:

Click to read more ...

Libya Special: Creating Armies out of Militias (Sheridan)

The Washington Post's Mary Beth Sheridan offers a slightly more pessimistic analysis than that of Barry Malone (see separate entry), focusing on the National Transitional Council's challenge to build an army out of the militias that toppled Muammar Qaddafi.

Sheridan does stress that the optimism and confidence of the recently victorious fighters is a positive and that many within Libya are committed to avoiding the mistakes of the past. However, this is a major challenge for the new Prime Minister, Abdurrahim El Keib, as both pro-Qaddafi fighters and anti-Qaddafi fighters struggle to find a place in the new Libya.

Click to read more ...

Libya Special: National Transitional Council Struggles to Remain the "Good Guys" (Malone)

http://bit.ly/tC4bKtWith Muammar Qaddafi gone, the unifying focus for National Transitional Council fighters to do the near-impossible has been removed. In the face of massive obstacles, despite politics, infighting, and even the death of the commander of the NTC forces, Abdul Fatah Younis, the fighters did not let sectarian tensions distract them from their cause.

Now that Qaddafi is dead and the country is united under a single, transitional, national government, there are obvious problems in maintaining that unity and avoiding the sectarian strife.

Barry Malone, writing for Reuters, examines the problems facing the NTC as they attempt to "remain the good guys." But Malone is not all doom and gloom, predicting that in all probability, Libya will evolve into a scene of "peaceful politicking with some low-level skirmishes possible as Libya moves down a bumpy path of change"....

Click to read more ...

Syria Special: Should We Treat Calls for a No-Fly Zone Seriously? (Zenko)

See also Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: A New Dialogue?

---

http://lat.ms/vZSb3p

Micah Zenko, writing for The Atlantic, explores the recent calls of protesters in the streets of Syri, for a "No-Fly Zone" and an international intervention, perhaps similar to the UN resolution and the NATO mission in Libya. Zenko, considering whether or not a no-fly zone would help the protesters, doubts that such a mission is in the international playbook. The most interesting assessment --- with which we agree --- is that there is little to no evidence that the Syrian military is using air power to attack protesters.

However, the one point that Zenko does not make is that the perception of the NATO intervention in Libya has stretched the meaning of the phrase "no-fly zone" for many in the Middle East. In Libya, only the first few days or weeks of the NATO mission concentrated on Qaddadi's air power. The rest of the mission focused on hammering Qaddafi's tanks, artillery, and rocket batteries. While Syria's military may not be relying heavily on its air force, Assad's loyalists have been patrolling, and shelling, the streets of Syria with heavily armored equipment. Perhaps, to the Syrian protesters on the ground who don't speak English as their first language, a "no-fly zone" actually mean a "blow up Assad's tanks" zone?

Click to read more ...