Syrian troops killed four people Saturday while storming the Omari mosque in Daraa, which has become a focal point for protesters in the besieged southern city.
The assault on the mosque in the city’s Roman-era old town lasted 90 minutes, during which troops fired tank shells and heavy machine guns, said resident Abdullah Abazeid. Three helicopters participated in the operation, dropping paratroopers on top of the mosque itself, he said.
Also, security forces in Damascus kept dozens of women from marching on parliament to urge President Bashar Assad to end his crackdown on a 6-week-old uprising.
More members of Assad’s ruling Baath Party resigned in protest as human-rights activists said the death toll soared to 535 from government forces firing on demonstrators to try to suppress the popular revolt.
EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood asserts political intentions.
The once-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood said Saturday its new political party will contest half of the seats in Egypt’s parliamentary elections in September, revealing plans to become a major force in the country’s post-revolution politics.
“This is not a religious party, not a theocratic party,” its newly named leader, Mahmoud Mosri, told reporters Saturday. He described the platform of his Freedom and Justice party as civil but with an Islamic background that adheres to the constitution.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s ousted president, Hosni Mubarak, could face the death penalty if he is convicted of ordering security forces to kill protesters during the January and February protests that led to his resignation, the justice minister said Saturday.
YEMEN: President rejects mediation deal.
Yemen’s embattled president backed away from a mediated deal that would have seen him step down in exchange for legal immunity, and his forces Saturday killed four people while pushing hundreds of anti-government demonstrators out of a square where they had been camped, witnesses said.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he did not want to sign the deal that was mediated by a bloc of neighboring gulf countries, said his close ally Abed al-Jundi.
It was a new blow to efforts to mediate the months-old crisis between the U.S.-backed Saleh and tens of thousands of demonstrators demanding the ouster of their ruler of 32 years, inspired by protests sweeping through the Arab region.
While the meeting was being held, Saleh’s forces, backed by tanks and heavy weapons, forcibly removed about 1,500 demonstrators from a square where they had been camping in the al-Mansour district of the southern port city of Aden for about two months.
BAHRAIN: Country calls for boycott of Iranian goods amid protests.
Bahrain’s authorities took broad swipes at Iran on Saturday, accusing Iranian-based hackers of trying to crack into a government website and urging a boycott of Iranian goods in retaliation for alleged interference in the island kingdom’s unrest.
The latest political salvos by Bahrain’s Sunni rulers are likely to deepen tensions with Shiite power Iran, which has been sharply critical of the kingdom’s crackdown on Shiite protesters demanding more freedoms.
The Bahrain Chamber for Commerce and Industry, meanwhile, called for a countrywide boycott of all Iranian goods and services because of “blatant interference in Bahrain’s domestic affairs and threats to the kingdom’s national security.”
Denver Post wire services
