Assaut militaire sur la mosquée de Deraa : 6 morts – 30 avril 2011

Syrian troops kill at least 6 in restive city

seattletimes

Backed by tanks, helicopters and snipers, the Syrian military seized a landmark mosque that had become a center of protests in the besieged southern town of Dara’a on Saturday, killing at least six people in an escalation of a weeklong crackdown, residents and activists said.

By ANTHONY SHADID

The New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Backed by tanks, helicopters and snipers, the Syrian military seized a landmark mosque that had become a center of protests in the besieged southern town of Dara’a on Saturday, killing at least six people in an escalation of a weeklong crackdown, residents and activists said.

The military’s capture of the Omari Mosque was another sign of its determination to crush dissent in a town that has become a symbol of the six-week uprising against the government of President Bashar Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000.

After deploying reinforcements of four tanks and 20 armored personnel carriers to Dara’a at dawn, the mosque was shelled, then taken by soldiers, who closed it to worshippers, activists and residents said. Snipers took up positions on top of the mosque, and helicopters dropped paratroopers on its grounds, witnesses said.

At least six people were killed at the mosque and elsewhere, they said. Among them was the son of the mosque’s preacher, who was shot when security forces entered his house looking for his father. There was a report that the preacher, Sheik Ahmed Siasna, was arrested later, though that could not be confirmed. He was among a delegation that had met with Assad three weeks ago to discuss potential reforms in authoritarian Syria. Read more…