Basher Assad’s security forces have deployed tanks near Damascus and killed at least eight protesters near the capital, where the uprising spread on Wednesday.
A change has begun in the capital, which has been relatively immune to the four-month-old protest movement, and the middle-class population and tens of thousands of residents on government payrolls have largely distanced themselves from the opposition.
The deterioration in the Syrian economy as the opposition movement refuses to surrender to brutal street-murders has begun to affect Damascus. In the video blow, security forces opened fire and dispersed protesters with tear gas 37 seconds into the footage.
One of the eight people killed in Kanaker, immediately outside the main city Wednesday, was an 11-year-old boy. In eastern Syria, an estimated one million marched Tuesday night and Wednesday, demanding an end to the regime headed by Assad.
The army cut electricity and deployed tanks as well as closing in on other Damascus suburbs.
Assad announced political reforms earlier this week, but they were rejected outright by opposition leaders as a "band-aid” and subterfuge for continued one-party rule by the Baath movement.