GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: Syria's Assad considers ending emergency rule amid violence

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Jerusalem Post

24March2011 3:30pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made an unprecedented pledge of greater freedom and more prosperity to Syrians on Thursday as anger mounted following a crackdown on protesters that reportedly left at least 100 dead.

As an aide to Assad in Damascus read out a list of decrees, which included a possible end to 48 years of emergency rule, a human rights group said a leading pro-democracy activist, Mazen Darwish, had been arrested.

n the southern city of Deraa, human rights activists and witnesses said at least 100 people had been killed there on Thursday when security forces opened fire on demonstrators inspired by uprisings across the Arab world that have shaken authoritarian leaders.

Announcing the sort of concessions that would have seemed almost unimaginable three months ago in Syria, Assad adviser Bouthaina Shaaban told a news conference the president had not himself ordered his forces to fire on protesters: (read full report)

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