Assad Supporters Storm U.S., French Embassies in Damascus
Angry mobs stormed the American and French embassies in Syria on Monday, after the two Western envoys visited the city of Hama, a flashpoint for protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The foreign ministry in Paris said three French staff were wounded in the embassy attack, while a U.S. official said "no staff were injured."
Guards at the French embassy had to fire three warning shots, the foreign ministry said.
As Syrian security forces looked on, Assad supporters smashed their way into the compound with a battering ram, broke windows and destroyed the ambassador's car, according to a spokesman in Paris.
An Agence France Presse photographer at the scene said several windows in the French embassy were broken and Syrian flags were raised.
"A car belonging to an embassy staffer was damaged and a picture of the Syrian president was stuck on it," he said.
One witness told the Associated Press three protesters were injured when guards beat them with clubs. The witness asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Hiam al-Hassan, another witness, said about 300 people had gathered outside the French Embassy while hundreds others were at the American diplomatic compound.
"Syrians demonstrated peacefully in front of the French embassy but they were faced with bullets," said al-Hassan.
The U.S. embassy official told Agence France Presse: "Today there was an attack by a mob on the U.S. embassy," adding the crowd caused some damage to the mission.
Monday's embassy attacks come four days after U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and his French counterpart Eric Chevallier visited the central city of Hama, 210 kilometers north of Damascus, sparking outrage in the capital.
Their visits took place amid fears of a bloody crackdown after Friday prayers the next day by Assad's forces, with tanks encircling the city.
The U.S. embassy official said "no staff were injured" on Monday and were never in "imminent danger," although the "Syrian government was slow to respond with extra security measures that were needed."
"The Syrian government has assured us that it will provide the protection required under the Vienna Convention and we expect it to do so."
He added that a Syrian television channel had "encouraged this violent demonstration," which followed protests at the embassy on Friday and Saturday calling for the ambassador's resignation.
On Sunday, a senior U.S. official had accused Damascus of orchestrating the protests over Ford's trip to Hama, which the authorities slammed as a "flagrant interference" in Syria's "domestic affairs."
In Washington on Monday, a State Department spokesperson said: "We strongly condemn the Syrian government's refusal to protect our embassy, and demand compensation for damages.
"We call on the Syrian government to fulfill its obligations to its own citizens as well."
Ambassador Ford, in a U.S. embassy Facebook post dated Sunday morning and referring to a protest outside the embassy on Saturday, said demonstrators "resorted to violence, unlike the people in Hama, who have stayed peaceful."
"And how ironic that the Syrian government lets an anti-U.S. demonstration proceed freely while their security thugs beat down olive branch-carrying peaceful protesters elsewhere," he wrote.
France on Sunday summoned Syria's envoy to Paris Lamia Shakkour over damage to the French embassy and a consulate in Aleppo on Saturday after Chevallier's trip to Hama.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe's cabinet chief called her to the ministry to receive a "vigorous protest", ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a statement.
Tensions have been escalating for months between Damascus and Washington over the Syrian government's fierce response to pro-democracy protests that erupted in mid-March.
Human rights groups say that since the protests broke out, the security forces have killed more than 1,300 civilians and made at least 12,000 arrests.
Syria blames what it calls "armed gangs" and Muslim extremists for the violence.
Source: Associated Press, Agence France Presse
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