Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Story Gets Out

The moment that Syrian security forces opened fire on a funeral crowd in Mezzeh in Damascus today

See also Tunisia Feature: Islamists, Faith, and Democracy
Egypt 1st-Hand: Nine Views of a Country's Future
Bahrain Movie: "Tn Tn Ttn" --- The Story of a Horn and Its Resistance
Bahrain 1st-Hand: The Deported Irish Activist's Week on the Island "They Are Slowly Killing These People"
Syria Audio Special: A Resident of Homs Speaks to EA Worldview
Yemen Interview: Nadia Al-Sakkaf "The Revolution Doesn't Relate to Daily Lives"
Friday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Two More Anniversaries

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2156 GMT: Scenes of clashes in Sitra in Bahrain today --- in the first, a youth is struck by fire from the police:

Youths pursue the security forces, throwing Molotovs:

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Yemen Interview: Nadia Al-Sakkaf "The Revolution Doesn't Relate to Daily Lives"

The Media Line's Felice Friedson posts this interview, by phone, with Nadia Al-Sakkaf, the editor-in-chief of The Yemen Times:

TML: Nadia, did Yemen go through a revolution?

AL-SAKKAF: It was a semi-revolution for Yemeni women in terms of being able to participate strongly in the public sphere in a way they had never done before. For certain women, it was the first time ever they had a voice which they could display publicly and feel safe and accepted by the male-dominated society. But other than that, I don’t think it had any sustainable or institutional element so I wouldn’t say it was a revolution, I would say it was a phenomenon that happened for a purpose and doesn’t have any long-term consequences.
 

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Starting 2012 With a Bang

Bahraini police, after speaking to activist Nabeel Rajab, attack the protest march in Manama on Friday night

See also Syria Video: Amidst the Violence, A #SecurityFail Comedy Moment
Friday's Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Calling for International Intervention?

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1930 GMT: Security camera footage showing the moment of yesterday's blast in Damascus has been obtained by the Al Alam News Network (and uploaded to YouTube via a third party). The commentators note that the explosion can be seen under the highway overpass, next to a car belonging to the security forces. See our liveblog yesterday for a map pinpointing the exact location of the blast.

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Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Report of the Commission of Inquiry

Security forces use tear gas in Bahrain on protesters and residents after a man died in his car, allegedly following an incident with a police jeep

See also Bahrain Special: The Commission of Inquiry's Report...& 14 Key Points About It
Egypt Analysis: So What Happens Now?
Egypt LiveBlog: Déjà Vu All Over Again
Tuesday's Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Turmoil and Confusion

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2150 GMT: The week of Thanksgiving 2011 will be remembered for what happened in the Middle East. Once again, Egypt was so eventful that it merited its own liveblog. Two other major developments will make the history books. In Yemen, President Saleh signed the Gulf Cooperation Council deal, effectively agreeing to trade his rule for immunity. In Bahrain, the independent report on human rights, and the regime's reaction to it, will likely set the stage for the next phase of unrest there.

With these two stories, and Egypt's news, Syria was doomed to the bottom of the priority list today. And yet, we saw some massively important developments, an unseen amount of protest in Damascus and Aleppo, and signs that Europe may be contemplating an intervention in the crisis.

There are many parallels between Yemen and Egypt, as both may have removed a dictator but neither has seen lasting change. In Bahrain, the opposition continues to struggle to be heard. But the developments in Syria may be the most important in the long run. With the news of protests reaching the reaching the two largest cities, the opposition appears stronger than it has ever been, and the Assad regime appears weaker. As Yemen and Egypt struggle to chart their next chapter, and the Bahraini opposition struggles to establish itself against a powerful regime, it appears that Syria could be the next domino to fall, perhaps the largest and most important domino yet.

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Yemen Interview: President Saleh "I Will Retire When There Are Elections"

Six days after returning  to Yemen from medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, President Ali Abdullah Saleh spoke on Thursday with Aryn Baker of Time magazine and Sudarsan Raghavan of The Washington Post.

Beyond the standard rhetoric --- Saleh has authorised his Vice President to conduct dialogue with the opposition, even though that opposition is linked to Al Qa'eda, note two things.

First, any talk of negotiation is limited by Saleh's insistence that his main opponents, General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and tribal leader Sheikh Sadegh al-Ahmar, cannot not have any influence: "[The initiative] says to remove all the elements causing tensions. Because if we transfer power and they are there, this will mean that we have given in to a coup."

And second, Saleh is playing up the image of his "alliance" with the US --- note how often he refers to co-operation with American intelligence.

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Yemen, Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Who's in Charge Here?

See also US and the World (Video and Transcript): President Obama to UN General Assembly "Peace is Hard"
Yemen Analysis: The Latest Deaths and the Mistakes of US Policy
Wednesday's Syria, Yemen, Bahrain (and Beyond): A "Win-Win" Protest?

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2125 GMT: Another photo of the mass opposition rally in the Bahraini capital Manama today:

2105 GMT: Claimed footage of men trying to rescue a shot companion from a street in Talbiseh in Homs Province in Syria:

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Syria, Bahrain, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Watching Homs

The clashes between President Saleh's forces and protesters in Yemen's capital Sana'a today --- 25+ protesters were killed and 100s injured

See also Tunisia Feature: Leading the Way on Women's Rights?
Israel-Palestine Feature: Trip by US Envoys Backfires, Palestinians Proceed to UN with Statehood Bid
Syria Video Feature: Tonight's Protests --- Executing Assad, Burning Russian Flag, and Calling for Protection
Bahrain Propaganda 101: How a US PR Firm Puts "News" in American Newspapers
Saturday's Syria, Bahrain, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Once Again They Rallied

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2100 GMT: Raw footage from Reuters of the events in Sana'a in Yemen today, with security forces killing dozens of protesters:

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Libya, Syria (and Beyond) Liveblog: Where is Qaddafi's Family?

1954 GMT: NATO has conducted 120 sorties today, 42 of them hitting ground targets near Sirte, Bani Walid, and Hun, the last remaining areas with a heavy pro-Qaddafi presence.

1800 GMT: The World Food Programme [WFP] is tendering for 250,000 tonnes of gasoline on behalf of Libya's ruling interim council. The official statement reads:

At the request of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), WFP is looking to procure 250,000 metric tons of gasoline that would cover immediate life-saving humanitarian needs for one month. Fuel supplies have been disrupted by the fighting, and water and electricity supplies depend on fuel-run generators. Fuel is also required for hospitals, ambulances and vehicles to distribute critically needed medicines, food, water, and other supplies.

1730 GMT: Following the Eid prayers, Muslim Brotherhood called on Egyptians to protect the "freedoms" against "any manipulation of the people’s will or choice" and reemphisezed the importance of handing over power to a civil government as soon as possible.      

1710 GMT: Asset freezes and bans on business interactions were imposed on Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, top presidential advisor Bouthaina Shaaban, and Syrian ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali, the US Treasury Department announced.

1645 GMT: Four video footages showing demonstrations in Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo respectively.

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Syria (and Beyond) LiveBlog: "Scare Tactics"

2040 GMT: Protest tonight in Homs in Syria:

2035 GMT: Notes of defiance in a New York Times summary of the regime's military incursion into Hama today (see 1030 GMT)....

“People here are ready with rocks,” said Omar Habbal, an activist....

In past weeks, Hama, a city of 800,000 on the corridor between Damascus and Aleppo, has emerged as a symbolic center of the nearly four-month uprising against 41 years of rule by the Assad family. Protests have gathered momentum, with a remarkable demonstration of tens of thousands on Friday, and youths have turned out nightly to taunt the government in Aasi Square, which they have renamed Freedom Square.

Though some have ambitiously described the city as liberated, the city’s administration still functions, and the military remains in force on Hama’s outskirts.

Residents said about 20 military vehicles and several buses carrying armed men in plain clothes, arrived in the early morning. As they entered, some of the security forces chanted in support of President Bashar al-Assad; some residents in the streets responded with, “God is great,” a religious invocation meant as defiance.

“The whole city woke up to defend against the raid,” Mr. Habbal said.

Some activists said residents threw rocks, and others tried to build roadblocks and barricades with whatever was available — burning tires, stones and trash dumpsters.

The plainclothesmen carried out dozens of arrests, mainly on the outskirts. One activist said 43, another put the number at 65, though the estimates seemed more guesswork. Residents reported gunfire, but the forces soon retreated.

“The security forces entered, then they left quickly,” said a 24-year-old student who gave his name as Abdel-Rahman. Like many, he insisted on partial anonymity. “People are waiting. They can’t control Hama unless they wipe out the people here.”

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Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Should the Opposition Join a "National Dialogue"?

2039 GMT: After the rebels have advanced near Zintan, capturing a series of underground bunkers south of the city and infusing fresh weapons into their ranks, destroying many Gaddafi heavy vehicles in the process, here is a map of the latest situation in Western Libya.

1925 GMT: As the BBC report we linked to earlier suggested, the Libyan rebels have captured a large weapons cache in the Nafusa Mountains, in western Libya. This infusion of weapons will bolster the rebel ranks, who often find themselves significantly outgunned:

"Long convoys of pickups and tractor trailer trucks could be seen streaming across the desert to the site after the fighting. They were loaded with rockets, ammunition, high-caliber guns and assault rifles before heading back to rebel-held cities. The insurgents also seized dozens of military vehicles at the site, which consisted of dozens of concrete storage mounds scattered across the desert."

Despite these gains, the final hour of the Gaddafi regime may still be a ways off:

1834 GMT: Women protest today on Dablan St, Homs, Syria:

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