Early in the morning prison guards start a prison search you know like searching the prisoners cells and all. This time it was more provocative than it used to be, which lead to a "word fight" between the prison guards and the "islamists" (apparently being too religious is politically incorrect and can be punished by a jail sentence.. ). It is reported that the prison guards got the Quran and started stepping on it repeatedly infront of the prisoners which infuriated the "islamists", whom in turn ran towards the prison guards that were desecrating the Quran in order to stop the prison guards from doing the unthinkable!
Those that ran were shot and killed, 9 of them that is. But soon the prisoners were able to overtake power in the prison capturing the prison manager and the prison guards. One of the prisoners, the source of all this information got hold of a mobile phone.
After a while the syrian security forces along with a reported 30 tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded the prison. Negotiations between the prisoners and the security forces took place where the prisoners asked the security forces that they would not harm (murder) the prisoners in return the hostages would be freed and everything would go back to normal. Negotiations took place using letters that were sent back and forth between the prisoners and the security forces. A 60 year old prisoner called Samir Al Baher, delivered the messages between the two sides.
The security forces refused to comply with the demands, and told the prisoners to give up the hostages, only then will there be any negotiations, which the prisoners refused to do. The security forces then beat up Samir Al Baher, and took him away in an armoured vehicle.
I have been reading random news about what has happened after wards and claims that the security forces said that they would storm the prison even if that means the death of a thousand prisoners, also news of an air strike (unlikely) and the firing of tear gas and other forms of weapons into the prison (likely).
Human rights groups in syria are calling on Syrian president Bashar Al Assad to intervene and put an end to this, but the government has so far kept a lid on the incident.
Human rights groups have also sent urgent calls and messages to the General Secratery of both the UN and the Arab League to interfere as well as to other human rights groups and organizations worldwide.
This is horrific stuff, shame on the government. This is not the first time the government has failed to do what it's supposed to do this year, with fightings occuring between two sects in Hama early this year.
Click Here for a report from the Syrian human right group in arabic about what happened.
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