Activists on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook called on Egyptians to stage protests on Tuesday outside the Syrian Embassy in Dokki to condemn attacks on the southern Syrian city of Daraa and the random shelling of civilians. The activists announced they would be starting a campaign to exert pressure on Essam Sharaf’s government to publicly condemn “the massacres committed by the Syrian army in Diraa.”
Human rights activists stated that at least 38 people were killed in Syrian city of Jabla, located in the northwestern part of the country, and Daraa after security forces stormed the cities with army tanks and armored vehicles. Bloggers and activists called on Sharaf to respond to the Egyptian people’s demands for Egypt to intervene and put a stop to the bloodshed.
In related news, Syrian Embassy staff detained an Egyptian citizen inside the embassy’s walls during an earlier protest, and they beat him up before releasing him. Syrian ambassador Yusuf al-Ahmad offered an apology at Wafd Party headquarters after it was discovered that the young man was a member of the party.
Translated from the Arabic Edition