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Students pelt U.S. Embassy in Damascus |
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October 5, 2000
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Some 1,000 university students on Wednesday pelted the U.S. Embassy in Damascus with stones, tree branches and bags of rubbish to protest the death of scores of Palestinians in clashes with Israeli security forces over the past week. Anti-riot police used batons and tear gas to stop the demonstrators from storming the embassy in the upscale Abu Romana area in central Damascus. But one was able to climb onto the roof of the three-story building in an attempt to bring down the U.S. flag. "He was partially successful in lowering it before police and embassy security detained him," Steve Seche, an embassy spokesman, told The Associated Press. The protester was later handed over to Syrian security. Seche said no casualties were reported among staffers at the embassy, which had closed prior to the arrival of the demonstrators. He said he did not know whether the embassy would reopen Thursday. A few of the demonstrators were slightly injured in scuffles with police and by flying stones. In a protest in December 1998, small, violent groups trashed the American ambassador's residence and entered the American and British cultural centers in Damascus to protest U.S.-British airstrikes against Iraq. They scattered library books and damaged furniture before they were brought under control. The U.S. embassy has been fortified since then. In Wednesday's demonstration, some 500 policemen in full riot gear stood guard outside the embassy as the students from the University of Damascus shouted "Down, down America" and "Damn you, America, this darkness will not last forever." Some students burned drawings of Israeli flags while others threw bags filled with rubbish from nearby houses. Street protests are rare in Syria, which is usually under tight security control. It was not clear whether Wednesday's protest had been sanctioned by authorities. Meanwhile in Egypt, some 3,000 students from Alexandria University protested a planned visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to their country on Thursday, shouting "Barak get out, Egypt will always remain clean." Barak has been invited by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to participate in a three-way summit with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to try to end the bloodshed that has claimed more than 60 lives. In Iraq, President Saddam Hussein warned in remarks published Wednesday that his country has the potential to quickly restrain Israel if its Arab neighbors give it territory from which to mount operations against the Jewish state. "Let them (Israel's neighbors) give us a small piece of land adjacent to (Israel) ... and they will see how we will quickly shut down Zionism," Baghdad's newspapers quoted the Iraqi leader as saying. During the 1991 Gulf War to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi invasion, Iraq hit Israel with ballistic missiles. But the country's military capabilities have since been significantly curtailed by sweeping U.N. sanctions imposed to punish it for its 1990 invasion of its smaller neighbor. |