Syria Special: The State of the Uprising, 10 Months On --- The Protests
Friday protests in the Akramiye neighborhood in Aleppo, once thought to be an Assad stronghold
With Arab League observers in Syria, the Ministry of Information sponsoring a trip for Western journalists (which led to the death of France reporter Gilles Jacquier), and with the reporting of eyewitnesses and activists, the world has its sharpest look into the crisis in Syria. But what does it see, 10 months into the crisis?
Initially, the protests in Syria were fairly large, and reports of violence were far less. It was unclear whether the violencat against the protesters was the work of local leaders of security forces, individual police officers, or a systemic approach by the regime to deter dissent.
As the violence escalated, the third answer was the right one, but what was remarkable was that the protests continued.