Syrian dictator Basher Assad ordered on Saturday the release of at least 260 prisoners from the Sednaya military prison in Damascus, according to human rights activists. He has also promised to lift Syria's emergency law that has been in place since 1963.
In Daraa, where the protests began a week ago, security forces and residents seem to have reached an implicit agreement. Security forces are not overtly visible, and residents are burying their dead and protesting peacefully despite the blood spilled over the past week. One Daraa resident told al-Jazeera they were not demonstrating against Assad, but rather "about changing some rules."
The government blamed Friday’s violence on armed gangs they say are influenced by foreign elements. Journalists and foreign observers have limited access to Syria making independent confirmation difficult, but the steady stream of YouTube vidoes showing the protests may indicate growing anger on the part of demonstrators.
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International Opinion
“This is the most serious unrest since Bashar’s been in office,” said a Western diplomat in Syria who spoke to the Washington Post on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. The diplomat noted, however, that the Syrian unrest had not risen to the scale or intensity to the uprisings in Egypt or Tunisia.
“The government has a margin of time here,” the diplomat said. “They have time to make reforms.”
European Union foreign policy chief Catherina Ashton strongly condemned the "brutal" response by the Syrian authorities to the "legitimate demands" of protesters. Ashton, said she was "appalled" by "the continued violent repression of protesters," and she urged the regime to "meet the needs and legitimate aspirations of the people through dialogue and political reforms and socio-economic emergency."
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the U.N. Human Rights Council expressed 'grave concern' over the use of 'bullets and tear gas' in Daraa and called for a full and transparent investigation into the deaths there.
Journalists in Syria have had been seriously restricted during the unrest. Syria has withdrawn the accreditation of a Reuters correspondent, saying he had filed "unprofessional and false" coverage of events in Syria, and two Americans citizens have been detained. SANA, Syria's official state-run news agency said one of the men was detained for selling photos and footage of the demonstrations to a 'Columbian woman.'