Syria's Assad facing dissent over Deraa crackdown

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Syria's Assad facing dissent over Deraa crackdown

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis – Wed Apr 27, 9:54 pm ET

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad faced dissent within

government ranks with more than 200 members of his Baath Party resigning and

signs of discontent within the army over the violent repression of pro-democracy

protests.

Two hundred party members from Deraa province and surrounding regions resigned

on Wednesday after the government sent in tanks to crush resistance in the city

of Deraa. At least 35 civilians were killed in the attack, rights groups said.

Diplomats said signs were also emerging of discontent within the army where the

majority of troops are Sunni Muslims, but most officers belong to the same

minority Alawite sect as Assad.

Assad sent the ultra-loyal Fourth Mechanized Division, commanded by his brother

Maher, into Deraa on Monday. Reports from opposition figures and Deraa

residents, which could not be confirmed, said that several soldiers from another

unit had refused to fire on civilians.

" The largest funerals in Syria so far have been for soldiers who have refused

to obey orders to shoot protesters and were summarily executed on the spot, " a

senior diplomat said.

Another diplomat said there was at least one instance this month of soldiers

confronting secret police to stop them shooting at protesters.

" No one is saying that Assad is about to lose control of the army, but once you

start using the army to slaughter your own people, it is a sign of weakness, " he

said.

GUNFIRE

The sound of gunfire was heard in Deraa on Wednesday night. Water, electricity

and communications remained cut and essential supplies were running low,

residents said.

" The martyrs are being kept in refrigerator trucks used normally to transport

produce, but they cannot move with the army firing randomly. We pour alcohol on

the bodies to lessen the stench, " one of the residents said.

The death toll in almost six weeks of protests rose to 450, a rights group

said.

Protests erupted in Deraa after security police arrested two prominent women in

the city, a doctor and an engineer, for expressing political views, and detained

15 children who wrote slogans on the walls demanding freedom, modeled on the

cries of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.

Once a recruiting ground for the Baath and secret police, Deraa has become the

cradle of Syria's uprising.

Syria has been dominated by the Assad family since Bashar's father, the late

President Hafez al-Assad, took power in a 1970 coup. The younger Assad kept

intact the autocratic political system he inherited in 2000 while the family

expanded its control over the country's struggling economy.

Assad's decision to storm Deraa echoed his father's 1982 attack on the city of

Hama to crush an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood. Up to 30,000 people

were killed with little objection from the international community.

Bashar al-Assad's attack on Deraa has drawn threats of sanctions from Western

powers but the West remains wary of contemplating action that could contribute

to toppling him.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi; Editing by Jon Hemming)