Syria: 2,500 Arrested in Crackdown

Syria arrested at least 500 pro-democracy sympathizers Monday—the same day in which tanks killed at least 23 people in the city of Daraa. At least two more people were killed in the Damascus suburb of Douma. The White House denounced on Monday the "brutal violence" and said it was considering sanctions. The State Department, meanwhile, has recommended that all U.S. citizens leave Syria.

Read it at Reuters

The Army Crackdown on Tahrir

I received this email about last night's events in Cairo's Tahrir Square, when army and security forces crackdown down on protestors who had set up camp in the square. There is still a lot of confusion about what happened, with the army claiming that thugs from the NDP had attacked the square and claiming it intervened to disband them. Activists say this is untrue. Reuters reported (and here's an updated version of that same article) that the army intervened against the protestors after curfew, firing shots in the air. The videos at the bottom of this post have the sound of a lot of gunfire, but there have been no reports of wounded or casualties to my knowledge (Update: Reuters says 2 dead, 15 wounded @11am). David Dietz also has an eyewitness account of the night, including brutality, in this post.

Another night of army brutality, nearly 1500 protesters were spending the night in Tahrir square tonight including 30 army officers that joined the demonstrations today and remained with the demonstrators throughout the night.
The Arabist