Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Hollow Declarations

See also Bahrain Feature: A New "Martyr"? The Death of Ali Hassan Al Daihi
Middle East Audio: Scott Lucas With Monocle Radio About Al Jazeera
Egypt Letter: Returning to Mubarak's Prisons (Alaa)
Wednesday's Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Catalyst of Alaa's Detention

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1747 GMT: The Bahrain Justice and Development Movement have posted an English-language account of the death of 70-year-old Ali Hassan Aldaihi, allegedly beaten by riot police as he returned home last night.

Aldaihi, the father of the Deputy Secretary General of the leading opposition party Al Wefaq, was found by his son. He was taken to hospital with head injuries but died at 12.30 a.m. after a cardiac arrest.

Aldaihi's home was attacked in September with rubber bullets fired into it.

1637 GMT: So, yesterday the Syrian government enters into an agreement with the Arab League, pledging among other things to withdraw troops and tanks and stop the bloodshed. What happened? A bloody day, with tanks deployed everywhere. Tomorrow, opposition groups are planning to put Assad's pledge to the test, with massive demonstrations scheduled in many locations. Many of our sources are buzzing that we may see protests in Damascus tomorrow. The Guardian's Martin Chulov thinks so too:

Two activists in Damascus said protests were being organised under a premise that nothing had changed. "Tomorrow [Friday] we will see how serious they are," one said. "I think they cannot afford to take the tanks from the streets just yet."

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Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Catalyst of Alaa's Detention

See also Egypt Letter: Returning to Mubarak's Prisons (Alaa)
Libya Special: Creating Armies out of Militias (Sheridan)
Libya Special: National Transitional Council Struggles to Remain the "Good Guys" (Malone)
Syria Special: Should We Treat Calls for a No-Fly Zone Seriously? (Zenko)

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2015 GMT: Egypt's military leaders have announced plans to free 334 people detained since the fall of the Mubarak regime in February.

Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, giving no details of who would be pardoned or when, said the releases would support "continued communication with the great Egyptian people and the youth of the revolution".

Human rights groups estimate that more than 12,000 civilians have been processed by military tribunals this year. This week brought international attention to the detentions with the military court's order to hold blogger and activist Alaa Abd-El Fattah (see separate entry).

1945 GMT: Claimed footage from Al Dair in Bahrain this evening, as protesters chant, "The martyr said, 'I sacrificed my soul to my country'" and "We will sacrifice our blood and souls to the martyrs":

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

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

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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?

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Spying on the Opposition

See also Egypt Feature: Activists' Statement on Detention of Alaa Abd-El Fattah
Syria Special: The Assad Regime's PR Campaign with British Journalists
Bahrain 1st-Hand: Saturday's Opposition Rally in Al Hajar for the "Arab Uprisings"
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Deaths Return to Hama

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2220 GMT: Three Saudi filmmakers, detained earlier this month after posting a YouTube video showing poverty in the kingdom, were released today.

Firas Baqna, Khalid al-Rasheed, and Hussam al-Darwish were arrested on 19 October 19 after their documentary was shown by the London-based opposition TV channel Al-Islah.

The series is entitled "Malub Aleina (We Are Being Cheated".

2120 GMT: Yemen's international airport outside the capital Sana'a has been shut after the explosions that shook the nearby al-Daylami airbase tonight.

Flights have been diverted to Aden in the south of the country.

2110 GMT: The next hearing in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, and his Ministers and aides has been delayed to 28 December. The postponement occurred after lawyers for alleged victims of Mubarak petitioned the court demanding that Judge Ahmed Refaat be replaced.

2000 GMT: We are overrun with footage of Syrian protests tonight --- a demonstration in Ma'arat Numan in the northwest:

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Deaths Return to Hama

Video of Friday's killings in Hama in Syria outside a mosque

See also Bahrain 1st-Hand: The People of Sitra "We Are Still Here. We Are Demanding. We Exist"
"Yes, We Will Tweet": How a Flashmob Took Over a New Media Conference in Lebanon
Bahrain Feature: The Freedom Torch Protests
Syria Video Special: Today's Protests Across the Country
Friday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Back on the Streets?

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1950 GMT: Activists say 10 Syrian security agents and an army deserter were killed on Saturday when a bus transporting security agents between the villages of Al-Habit and Kafrnabuda in Idlib Province, in northwestern Syria close to the Turkish border, was ambushed "by armed men, probably deserters".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said that 17 soldiers were killed late on Friday in the central city of Homs when gunmen, believed to be deserters, attacked two checkpoints.

Elsewhere on Saturday, according to the Observatory, five civilians, including a woman and a 15-year-old teenager, were killed and several wounded by gunfire from Syrian forces and snipers in Homs Province (see 1915 GMT).

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Back on the Streets?

An anti-regime protest in Zabadani, outside the Syrian capital Damascus, last night

See also,Bahrain Feature: The Freedom Torch Protests
Syria Video Special: Today's Protests Across the Country

Bahrain Propaganda 101: Foreign Minister Gets a Boost from Washington's Journalists
Thursday's Syria, Yemen (and Beyond): Child Martyrs and Broken Promises

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2230 GMT: Upset at the disqualification of a political party for "irregularities" from Sunday's election, a crowd of protesters allegedly tried to attack the regional government headquarters today in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring. Police reportedly fired into the air to disrupt the protests:

2221 GMT: Al Jazeera is now reporting that today's death toll in Syria has topped 40. The other significant development? Most of the protesters were killed in Hama, adding credibility to details that EA reported earlier.

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Syria Video Special: Today's Protests Across the Country

Anadan, Aleppo:

Sanamein in the south:

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Syria, Yemen (and Beyond): Child Martyrs and Broken Promises

1952 GMT: It may not look like much, but this video could be significant. The LCCS reports that this was taken in Kafar Zeta, Hama, and the cameraman holds sign with today's date. There have been reports of defections in the area, and gunfire can be heard in the city. The scene is otherwise quiet, suggesting that whoever is shooting is not shooting at protesters. Also, at one point tracer fire can be seen, suggesting that this conflict is more serious than the gunfire in the foreground. It appears that fires can be seen in the distance:

1949 GMT: Activists report a large evening protest in the Damascus suburb of Harasta:

1940 GMT: The video claims to show that Assad's supporters were actually bused to the event in Lattakia today. From the details in the video, there is no way of verifying that report:

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Syria, Yemen (And Beyond): Switching From West to East

The scene at the "victory party" outside of the Al Nahda party headquarters in Tunisia

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2216 GMT: A protest in the Damascus suburb of Zamalka tonight:

And a march from the Al-Rifai mosque in Kafarsouseh:

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Syria, Yemen (And Beyond): Two Cities Burning in Two Countries

Houses burn after they were lit on fire, reportedly by regime supporters, in Ahlbit in Syria's Idlib Province on Monday

See also Syria Video Special: Homs is Still Burning
Yemen Feature: Drones & the Killing of an American Teenager
Monday's Tunisia, Libya, Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Election, Liberation, Protest

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1920 GMT: A couple of the protest videos from Syria tonight --- the Ghouta and Qosour districts of Homs:

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