DAMASCUS, Syria — Shops and restaurants close early in Damascus these days, their owners eager to get home before dark, which sometimes brings shootings and other crime. Blast walls and checkpoints ring government buildings to guard against car bombs. Residents struggle with spiraling prices and power outages.
Damascus has been transformed by Syria’s deadly and divisive uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime. A capital once considered one of the safest in the world has become tense with worries over violence. A city that had grown boisterous and optimistic with an economic blossoming in recent years is now grim with fears for the future.
Electricity outages lasting up to 12 hours a day have forced residents to buy private generators, and the din from their engines echoes along the commercial Hamra Street.
Prices have tripled in the past few months, and companies have begun laying off employees or slashing salaries.
Last April, the capital felt untouched, bustling with tourists and with young entrepreneurs with big plans. Protests in Daraa were only beginning to spread.
Since then, Assad’s regime has waged a fierce crackdown on the uprising that a U.N. official said Tuesday has left more than 7,500 people dead. Flare-ups in Damascus have set residents on edge.
“They want to take us back 100 years,” Maha Shujaa, a 38-year-old interior designer and Assad supporter, said of the protesters.
“Who is going to protect me when the president goes, those bearded guys? No thanks.”
The Associated Press
