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November 21, 2011

Syria: Anti-Government Fighters Launch Rocket-Propelled Grenades at Ruling Party Headquarters 
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Anti-government fighters in Syria launched rocket-propelled grenades at
the ruling Baath party headquarters in the capital city of Damascus over
the weekend. The attack is seen by many as a sign of a new chapter in
the nation’s eight-month-old uprising against President Bashar
al-Assad. Opposition forces say the strike was a response to the
government’s failure to comply with an Arab League peace plan, under
which it agreed to free tens of thousands of political prisoners and
withdraw its troops from the streets. A deadline for the peace deal
passed on Saturday amid continued violence, with reports that at least
17 people were killed. President Assad's government has been accused of
killing more than 3,500 of its own citizens while committing a number of
human rights abuses. Over the weekend, Assad defended the use of
violence by his forces.

Bashar al-Assad, Syrian President: "Talking about the killing — you
have to ask who killed the 800 officers and soldiers and policemen in
the streets. So we are not talking about peaceful demonstrations, we are
talking about militants. Whenever you have militants, you have killing.
So the role of the government is to fight those militants in order to
restore the stability and to protect the civilians, not by leaving them
to do what they want to do and talk about killing, This is our job and
that is what we are doing now."



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