Al Jazeera reports:
Syrian security forces have reportedly killed one person and wounded several others protesting at a mosque in the capital, Damascus.
Activists said “thousands” of people took to the streets in Kafarsouseh, a western suburb, to protest against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule after early morning prayers on Saturday.
A witness told Al Jazeera that security forces and shabiha [regime thugs] arrived at the scene, using sound bombs and tear gas in an attempt to stop the demonstration.
Protesters threw rocks and the tear gas canisters back at the security forces, the witness said, and security forces responded with gun fire, injuring eight people.
The witness said protesters were then pushed back into the mosque, which was surrounded by shabiha and security forces.
Activists said security forces stormed the mosque, attacking the 80-year-old imam who was later taken to a Damascus hospital. Parts of the interiors was damaged and about 150 people arrested, according to activists.
While the mosque was besieged, crowds gathered to protest in a square adjacent to the mosque. Activists said five people were injured when security forces opened fire and used teargas to disperse the protesters.
It looks like Assad is done. All the experts seemed to think as long as the protests didn’t start in Aleppo and Damascus he would survive but last few days they are starting in both cities. Even Iran is now calling for him to reform which means he has lost his last ally.
The question is how he falls, long bloody revolution, NATO invasion, goes peacefully, or removed in a coup? Also what type of Syria will replace it? Obviously it will be majority Sunni (so proabably close to Saudi Arabia). Will it cut off suppy lines to Hezbollah now that the Alawite Shia Assad is gone? Will it expel the Palestinian resistance leader Khaled Meshal? Will the minority Shia’s suffer from ethnic attacks by the Sunni’s (like the Sunnis suffered by the Shia in the Iraqi civil war)? The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is thought to be the most extremist chapter and has refused to cut ties to Jihadists, will it win elections? Will the Russians lose their only naval base in the Mediterreanan?
A dozen questions. No doubt the result of Syria could tip the balance of power in the Middle East back towards the US-Israel-Saudi axis and put Iran and even Turkey on the back footing.