Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: 360 Degrees of Homs on Fire

The Bab Amr District of Homs, Syria, is targeted by heavy machine guns, tank shells, and anti-personnel shells that explode overhead See Also, Syria Video Essay: The Military Assault on Homs

---

1933 GMT: James Miller posts a video essay evaluating the assault by the Syrian military on the city of Homs and its aftermath.

1921 GMT: EA's source in Bahrain writes this report of what happened today:

Just came back from my last round in Bahrain. On my way out I saw groups of protesters (men and women) marching in Sitra, 7 villages, police vehicles chasing some of them. The roads looked like a war zone, sounds of horns honking the famous tune, "Tn.Tn.Ttn," AKA "down down Hamad" could be heard all around from protesters who were in the streets or up the roofs of the houses.

After managing to find a way out, I took the highway leading to the Saudi causeway. Police jeeps and traffic officers where all parking on both sides of the highway & at some checkpoints in the entrances to the villages. I noticed that the turn leading to Budayeh road (north of Bahrain) was open so I took it, and tried to get inside some of the villages there, like Karanah or Janosan, but it was no use. They were either blocked by police or by barriers that had been placed by protesters. So I had to go back from where I came.

I went back and took another road leading to east the of Bahrain. On my way I saw a group of protesters blocking the other lane of the highway near Athari village (police jeeps were just about 300m away!!). They used bricks, wood plats and 1 of them was pouring on the ground some kind of liquid -I think it was used car oil- they were fast and ran away immediately once they completed!

So I just contined on my way. I saw police SUVs heading toward the blocked road. I reached Juffair village, and I noticed the remainings of the roadblock that was done early this morning. There was a police SUV parked next to the scene, seems it was there to prevent protesters from doing it again, I continued until I reached Seef area (the place where protesters were determined to reach and gather). It was full, but with police thugs, not with protesters.

It's the last day of the weekend, people usually go out, malls are suppose to be full, but two main malls, Bahrain mall & Dana mall, were closed, and the other 2 big ones, Seef & City Center, the parking lots were almost empty!

That's when I decided to get back home, it's true that we couldn't reach the center point which we planned to gather in, but for sure and thanks to the huge security presence in all around Bahrain roads I can say with certainty that the Bahrain revolution is still alive and people are defiantly not going to give up. Government fears us, it fears our existence and fears our truthful movement for freedom and dignity.

1916 GMT: Our source in Bahrain shares this video, reportedly showing the youth of Arad blocking the road in front of the Bahrain airport:

A more substantial roadblock is erected on the highway this evening:

1604 GMT: Another funeral for another martyr, killed Friday in Bab Amr, Homs, Syria. The defiance of the protesters surrounding the coffin is apparent:

1531 GMT: A funeral for the protesters killed in Baba Amr, Homs, Syria, in yesterday's violence (see video above):

1437 GMT: James Miller takes the blog, and a big thank you to Scott Lucas for doing an unbelievable job while on the road.

More violence has been reported in Syria, specifically in Idlib Province. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 1 person has been killed in Idlib province in clashes between security forces and defecting soldiers. The AFP reports:

"A man was killed this morning in the village of Maar Horma in the Idlib region during clashes between the Syrian army and armed men, who were probably deserters," the Britain-based watchdog said.

Also, the body of a man who had been detained four days earlier has been returned to his family in al Qusour, Homs.

The extrajudicial killing of prisoners by the Syrian security apparatus is now becoming routine in Syria.

1420 GMT: Bahraini police mobilised in Sitra alongside a blocked road:

1400 GMT: Turkish State television TRT has reported that Anakara's troops have killed 32 Kurdish insurgents in Hakkari province in southeast Turkey, on the third day of an offensive to avenge the deaths of 24 soldiers.

TRT claimed, without citing a source, said a total of 53 Kurdish militants have been killed so far in the operation.

The Turkish military has said it deployed jets and 10,000 troops on either side of the border.

Turkey Analysis: As 10,000 Soldiers Pursue Kurds Inside Iraq, What Does "Big Revenge" Mean?)

1355 GMT: Interim Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, preparing to step down, has said an election should be held within eight months for a national council to draft a new constitution and form an interim government.

Jibril said the death of former leader Muammar Qaddafi had left him feeling "relieved and reborn". As for criticism of the manner of Qaddafi's demise, he said, "People in the West don't understand the agony and pain that the people went through during the past 42 years."

1340 GMT: In Baniyas in Syria, women chanted "The people want the execution of the President":

In the Khalidiya district of Homs, people mourn 17-year-old Bilal Ahmad Hamesh, who allegedly died from torture:

1330 GMT: An EA source in Bahrain reports, "Activist groups have instructed protesters who cannot get into villages to drive their cars on some main roads to cause traffic jam so police will find more difficulties in reaching protest locations."

Protesters block a street near Tubli, using barriers from a construction site:

1325 GMT: An anti-regime protest in Dael in southern Syria this morning:

Video from the funeral of Hussam Al-Abyad, killed by security forces:

1315 GMT: Witnesses and reporters say fierce clashes have erupted between Yemeni President Saleh's forces and opposition soldiers in the capital Sana'a, a day after the UN Security Council called for a transition in power.

Five troops of dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar were reportedly killed. Explosions were heard throughout Sana'a early Saturday, and plumes of smoke and fire were seen rising from several neighbourhoods including Hasaba, where opposition tribal chief Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar lives.

1150 GMT: Closing of a road near the Financial District of Bahrain's capital Manama:

1020 GMT: In Bahrain, youth in Juffair block the main street near the Fateh Mosque and Salman Harbor Oct 22, Dignity Arrow:

1000 GMT: As we get more reports of roads blocked today in Bahrain by the "Arrows of Dignity" protest, glimpses of demonstrations in 39 villages over the last 48 hours:

A human chain surrounds vehicles of security forces in Duraz on Thursday night:

A march in Mehaza last evening:

Sefala last night:

0920 GMT: Brian Whitaker posts the text of Friday's UN Security Council resolution on Yemen. The take-away impression? While there is condemnation of human rights violations and invocations for all sides to renounce violence and to sign the deal for transition of power, there is no enforcement or notable leverage --- especially on President Saleh --- to accept the document.

0850 GMT: An EA source in Bahrain brings information on today's "Arrows of Dignity" protest, in which demonstrators are trying to block roads, pointing us to videos. He says that roads in Sitra, as shown in this clip, have been closed:

Our source continues, "Roads are blocked every where, lots of police in most of the roads, helicopter has been flying over Sitra since the early morning. I reached tSanabis but all entrances have been closed, and there are checkpoints checking cars and even phones of drivers.

He concludes, for the moment, "I don't think I'll make it inside. It's risky now Will try to find one last entrance. Hope it works."

0550 GMT: Saudi Crown Prince and heir to the throne, Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, has passed away at the age of 83 during medical treatment in the US:

Saudi Analyst Sultan Al Qassemi writes, " People in Saudi consider this big news as CP Sultan was the second (strongest) man in Saudi. Crown Prince Sultan was in charge of the Yemeni file in Saudi. He oversaw the bilateral relations."

Foreign Policy Magazine's Blake Hounshell comments, " Crown Prince Sultan had been incapacitated for years. His death changes almost nothing."

Hounshell adds, "One impact of Sultan's long incapacitation was that Yemen, his bailiwick, was left to fester."

0445 GMT: With James Miller covering events, we shifted focus from the Qaddafi post-mortem in Libya, as well as the more important question of what next for the reconstruction of the country, to the destruction of Syria.

More than 30 people were reportedly slain on another Friday of prayer and protests. That in itself is far from new. What is distinctive is our sense --- but accompanied with the unknowns from limited communications --- that Homs, the country's 3rd-largest city, is being torn apart in a battle.

How large the battle is, we cannot be sure. But the intensity of the military's fire --- an EA reader noted, "Imagine the tops of your city's prominent buildings being knocked off" --- indicates that this is more than the suppression of protesters or a skirmish with a few defectors.

The regime has tried blanket fire and communications blackouts to repress the challenge in previous cities --- Hama comes to mind --- but Homs is a question of 1.2 million people (twice the population of Washington, D.C.), with 1.7 million people living in the Province.

It is probably a reach to say that this is Syria's equivalent of Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city in which insurgents established an alternative government in March and held out against a regime siege.

But I have to put the possibility that, if the residents of Homs not only withstand this military assault but put together a system to keep the city alive, then we are in a new political situation.