Two people are dead after Syrian government forces stormed a village in the country's northern region Saturday. The village of Ma'aret al-Numan is located in the northern province of Idlib, where government troops attacked other villages in similar raids last week as well.
The soldiers were allegedly searching for Adnan Bakkour, a high-profile attorney general for the central Hama province. Using two highly-publicized videos, Bakkour declared his resignation Wednesday to protest the government's brutality.
What appeared to be a defection was explained by the government spin meisters as coercion by “terrorists” who they claimed had forced him to make the recording. However, Bakkour denied that claim in one of the two videos he made.
Saturday's murders followed an attempt by Syrian security forces who tried Friday to crush more anti-government demonstrations in the suburbs of Damascus. At least 17 protesters were slaughtered when government forces fired on the thousands of civilian marchers, most of them in towns around the capital.
Some 2,200 people have died since the grassroots anti-government protests began in March. There are weekly demonstrations in towns and villages around the country, with government forces brutally attempting to stem the tide by traveling from one place to the next.