Panic gripped Damascus after fast-advancing rebels stated on Saturday they’d begun operations to encompass Syria’s capital, residents stated, with many scrambling to top off on very important provides.
Protests unfold like wildfire in neighbouring provinces, with anti-government demonstrators toppling statues of late president Hafez al-Assad within the Jaramana suburb of Damascus and within the southern metropolis of Daraa.
Damascus resident Rania, who’s in her eighth month of being pregnant, stated she couldn’t discover desperately wanted medication wherever as retailers and pharmacies had closed early.
“I am very scared, for me and for my unborn daughter,” she informed AFP.
“I have been attempting to purchase medication since this morning however I can not discover what I want.”
Rania stated she needed to come dwelling empty-handed after her husband demanded that she return.
“The scenario was not like this once I left my home this morning… all of the sudden everybody was scared,” she stated.
Rebels stated earlier Saturday they’d begun operations to encircle the government-held capital after seizing close by cities.
Syria’s defence ministry denied the military had fled positions close to town.
Residents spoke to AFP of a state of panic as site visitors jams clogged central Damascus and other people sought provides and queued to withdraw cash from ATM machines.
Three residents, who requested anonymity for safety causes, stated they struggled to search out meals or medicines as shops had shut.
Rumours that President Bashar al-Assad had fled the nation added to the nervousness, though his workplace denied the reviews and stated he was nonetheless in Damascus.
Assad final appeared in public on Sunday throughout an official go to by Iran’s Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi.
– ‘Syria is ours’ –
Safety forces and the military have been deployed within the Mazzeh neighbourhood, which is dwelling to embassies, United Nations places of work and safety headquarters.
Inside Minister Mohammed al-Rahmoun informed state tv safety forces had imposed an impenetrable cordon across the metropolis, whereas he toured the capital in a bid to “reassure” residents.
The temper was starkly completely different a couple of kilometres (miles) away, within the southern Damascus suburb of Jaramana the place anti-government protesters toppled a statue of Assad’s father, witnesses informed AFP.
Statues have been additionally toppled in Hama, seized by rebels inside days of snatching second metropolis Aleppo — in scenes harking back to the mass anti-government protests that swept the nation in 2011.
In Jaramana, which is dwelling to principally Druze, Christians and households displaced by greater than a decade of civil warfare, video footage verified by AFP confirmed younger males chanting: “Syria is ours, it would not belong to the Assad household.”
One witness stated by telephone that he noticed “dozens of protesters” tear down the statue of Assad’s father in a foremost sq. in Jaramana that bears the previous president’s identify.
One other witness who handed by means of the sq. later stated the statue had been smashed.
Damascus resident Mohammed, 35, informed AFP he felt “a mixture of shock, concern and fear in regards to the future”.
“Nothing compares to what we’re going by means of as we speak. However I feel we’re witnessing days that can go down in historical past,” he added.
