Syrians want no association with terrorists.

I guess with all that is happening in the middle east, Al Qaeda isn't getting enough attention so their new leader al-Zawahiri decided to speak about Syria.  The Syrian protesters however want no association with al-Zawahiri or his group for that matter.  If you were to talk to the average Syrian protester on the street, they would tell you that it's not about religion, that it's all about reforms and freedom.  I was reading earlier today that the people in Hama were showing both the Qoran and the Bible in their protests, to re-iterate that the protests are not sectarian.   The last thing the protesters need is al-Zawahiri support so Bashar can say "See foreign agitators and Islamists threaten Syria".

Earlier in the week Bashar announced a new law in effect, allowing multiple political parties but it's still too little too late. On the one hand he announces this new law and at the same time, is sending tanks to crush protesters in various parts of Syria, in hopes to keep the protests to a minimum during Ramadan. Mark my words, the more he tries to crush via violence the more people go out on the streets to protest and the less control he has. People will take to the street in much larger numbers during Ramadan.

Avaaz said 1,634 people have died in the crackdown, 26,000 have been arrested, of whom 12,617 are still in detention in Syria. Avaaz has revealed the identities of 2,918 Syrians who have been arrested by Syrian security forces and whose whereabouts are now unknown.

Nice article from the "Last tourist in Syria"  Emma Sky who is travelling exploring the Arab Spring.

On another note, earlier this week some French soldiers part of UNIFIL in Southern Lebanon were injured by a road side bomb. It turns out it the attack was carried out by a pro-Syrian Lebanese group, in retaliation for France's stance on Syria. There's also Hezbollah that denies it's helping the Syrian regime, but then you have Bashar that says he's not killing his own people!!! Who to believe?  Hezbollah has been in bed with Syria and Iran for a long time. Saying this isn't so isn't convincing too many people.

This morning seeing that it's Friday I've been looking for news of the protests after Friday prayers and haven't found out much yet. There's been a blast on the oil pipeline near Homs which the government said was done of course by terrorists. They have dispatched troops to Homs  to lay siege to the Military Academy where a Brigadier General and his officers have barricaded themselves. They say that the 7th armoured division in Deir Ez Zor have defected, after trying to protect citizens there from the regime's thugs. An article I was reading this morning says that the Syrian revolution is pure revolution because it has no real leaders, it's mostly spontaneous.

From what I'm reading in the facebook group "The Syrian Days of Rage" today, so far there has been protests today in Aleppo,  Hama & Qatana. The information will start trickling out of Syria in a couple of hours, but I bet it will be the day of the biggest demonstrations yet! Here's what AlJazeera has to say for today so far.