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With the Druze joining the uprising, all of Syria's dozen or so ethnic
and religious communities are now marching under the banner of
revolt against the Assad dynasty.
More important, perhaps, the day brought the first signs that at least
parts of the security forces may be reluctant to shoot demonstrators in
the street. According to my sources, security men have shot at least
three soldiers on the spot for "disobedience."
"These were cold-blooded executions in the street," one source tells
me. "The soldiers had refused to fire on marchers. They were killed
by men from the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs."
Two of the three soldiers shot have been identified as Muhammad
Awadh Qanbar and Murad Hajoo, who died in Maddiyah. A third
soldier was shot in the port city of Banias.
In Tartus, Der'aah and the Kurdish city of Qamishli, Alawite elite
units have replaced the regular army with orders to crush the
demonstrations.
Some special Alawite units, known as al-Ashbah or "ghosts," appear
in civilian clothes to kill demonstrators at random. The tactic is meant
to terrorize the opposition, forcing it to stop its almost daily protests.
These terror tactics are starting to radicalize the opposition, but some
groups still hope to reach a peaceful way out of the crisis. Several
human-rights groups have joined in the Damascus Declaration,
calling for a negotiated departure of Bashar al-Assad and his
entourage with the Syrian army acting as an interim government.
Other groups, however, insist that the opposition is willing and able
to set up a transitional authority and hold free elections, with the
army ensuring the country's security.
The Assad clan is trying to convince the outside world, including the
United States and the European Union, that the regime's fall could
lead to chaos and sectarian wars. It claims the opposition is either too

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