Residents and witnesses reported on Sunday that dozens of demonstrators, unhappy with the deteriorating economic situation in Syria, broke into the headquarters of the province of As-Suwayda (Government Palace) in the south of the country and set fire to parts of the city. building during a fierce firefight.
Witnesses told Reuters that earlier more than 200 people gathered around a building in the center of the Druze-populated city, chanting slogans calling for the overthrow of Syrian regime chief Bashar al-Assad amid rising prices and economic hardship. For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said protesters burned a security vehicle and damaged other vehicles.
After that, security forces entered the crowd of demonstrators and opened fire to disperse the protesters, who moved from the Al-Mashnaq roundabout, the “main center of the protests”, towards Al-Sir Square in the center of Al-Suwayda. and set rubber tires on fire. According to the Observatory, “in the province of As-Suwayda, there is a state of popular discontent caused by the corruption of the Syrian government and related institutions, the looting of public money by officials, the deprivation of the province of fuel and heating materials. , water and electricity, high prices, and security chaos and theft.”
