Assad faces anger in the streets as protests sweep southern Syria

 

 'Chants like “the people want the régime to fall!”, “Syria belongs to us, not the al-Assad family!” and “Get out, Bashar!” have been ringing through the streets of the Syrian city of As-Suwayda in recent days. It’s an echo: protesters from the city – many of the Druze minority – are using the same chants that demonstrators took up twelve years ago when the revolution first began in Syria.

 A wave of protests has swept cities in southern Syria since the government’s announcement on August 15 that they intended to increase the price of petrol by 200%, a devastating price increase for a population whose financial situation has been ravaged by twelve years of war. More than 90% of the population lives under the poverty line. Government employees earn, on average, a monthly salary of just 12 euros.

 The first group to respond to the government’s announcement were truck drivers in As-Suwayda. They called for a general strike and mobilisation.

 Shadi Al Dubaisi is a citizen journalist who lives in As-Suwayda. He participated in the protests.

 "Protests took place in dozens of places across the governorate. The roads were blocked. The local headquarters of the Baath party [Editor’s note: Bashar al-Assad’s party] and its branches were shut down.

 People spray painted walls and handed out pamphlets. The protesters called for the overthrow of the régime, the liberation of political detainees and the application of resolution 2254.

 The protesters have popular support as well as the support of the sheikh of the Druze, Hikmat al-Hijri. He supports the calls of the protesters and warns against any harm coming to them. It seems as if the security forces are unable to shut down these protests because of the large popular support as well as the participation of people from all sectors of society, including young people, women and the clergy."



 The strike largely took place in As-Suwayda. Images shared on August 20 by the local media As-Suwayda 24 show dozens of shops in the town centre shut down. On August 23, protesters set a large poster of Bashar al-Assad on fire.

 Protests also took place in other cities. In Jableh, a town near the coastal city of Latakia, many people participated in the general strike. A video posted on social media on August 20 shows soldiers deployed to the town trying to force people to re-open their stores. Protests also took place in Deraa as well as in the suburbs of Damascus. In Nawa, a suburb of Deraa, security forces carried out a violent crackdown on a peaceful nighttime protest on August 20.

 Firas Kontar, who is both French and Syrian, wrote the book Syria: The Impossible Revolution.

 "The protests took place in places where the régime’s security services have less control. In Deraa, there is still a strong presence of militants from the Free Syrian Army, which means that the régime was unable to regain a firm hold on the territory.

 People in As-Suwayda have never supported the régime or pro-régime militias. Instead, they supported the revolution from the beginning, which was embarrassing to the régime, which always pretended that minorities were on its side. It’s a big slap in the face for the régime.

 We are experiencing the dislocation of a society, of a state that has left behind a terrible void in its wake. There’s been instability for the past 12 years. There won’t be an end to this conversation while Assad is here. The problems can’t be resolved with his presence. He is the knot that prevents any movement towards a pacification of the situation. And so this all continues." '

Football fever hits rebel-held northwest Syria

 

 'Thousands of fans in Syria's last opposition bastion have packed into a stadium for the frenzied final of a football cup -- an escape valve amid years of conflict and misery.

 "I'm really happy today," said Mohammed al-Zeer, 28, from the northwestern city of Idlib. "Between the war and the destruction and explosions and the problems", events like a football match are "a great joy".

 Syria's rebel-held Idlib region is home to about three million people, around half of them displaced from other parts of the country.

 Many live in poverty, including in overcrowded displacement camps.

 Friday night's match pitted the Omaya team from the heart of the opposition-held city against Homs Al-Adiya, composed of players originally from the régime-held city of Homs.

 The stadium was packed with cheering spectators who set off flares and yelled revolutionary anti-régime slogans as well as football chants.

 Supporters waved Syrian opposition flags along with the red-and-green colours of the Idlib team or the blue-and-yellow of the Homs club.

 "Whenever I watch matches with a big, enthusiastic crowd, it means a lot to me," said Zeer, who is also a fan of Barcelona and Argentina's national team.

 "Sport is the only outlet for young people in the Idlib region."



 The tournament brought together 36 teams made up of players from the Idlib region or displaced from other parts of Syria.

 The Idlib bastion is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), considered a "terrorist" group by Damascus, as well as by the United States and the United Nations.

 Idlib footballer Yazen Habboush said he used to play for Omaya when it was part of the Syrian premier league team in government-held areas.

 "Some other players and I defected" in 2015, said Habboush who is now in his late twenties.

 He was enthusiastic about the opportunity Friday's match provided, saying it enabled people to "express feelings" usually kept inside.

 Because so many people wanted to see the match, hundreds climbed on top of walls in the stadium itself and also nearby, or watched from the roofs of buildings.

 There was a rush of excitement when the home team won 2-1, with Omaya fans invading the pitch, women ululating and fireworks bursting over the stadium in celebration.

 Fans of the victors then took to the streets on motorbikes and in cars, waving Omaya flags of red and green.

 Idlib's municipal stadium was hit by air strikes early in the conflict, but underwent basic restoration work and reopened in 2018.

 In 2020 it hosted displaced people who pitched tents around the facility, hanging their laundry on the pitch-side fence.

 Mohammed al-Sibaie, a sports official with the local authorities, said further renovations were completed last November.

 The stadium was at its maximum capacity of 12,000 for Friday night's game, he said.

 "Sport is an outlet for everybody," whether sportspeople or not, Sibaie said.

 "Despite the bombing and despite the hardships that the people are going through, God willing we will continue doing sport and expand on it," he added.'