Syria, Bahrain (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Questions in the Silence from Homs
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 6:19 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 1936 GMT: The Palestinian prisoners return to the West Bank:
One of the accusations floating around is that some of these prisoners are, in fact, murderers, and Israel is likely to pay a high price for this prisoner exchange. Osama Hamdan, a senior member of Hamas, responds to the accusations:
See EA Correspondent Ali Yenidunya's analysis, Israel Special: How Gilad Shalit Saved Prime Minister Netanyahu
1821 GMT: In Daraa, the crisis may be even wider spread than we initially thought. The LCCS posts this:
Daraa: Msaifra: Authorities cut off electricity to the town after a massive night protest and security forces raiding of it
So, with a massive military campaign under way in Daraa proper, and in Harak, and perhaps now one about to be underway in MSaifra, while the military is conducting unprecedented raids near Damascus, and the campaign against Homs continues, one wonders how stretched Assad's military is as the current moment. It appears that he is threatened enough by the strength of this opposition that he has tanks deployed from Lebanon to the border with Turkey.