News Flash Syria: Friday, May 13

Day of Protest: Today is the 63th day of demonstration in Syria.

Death Toll: So far more than 682 people have been  killed by Security Forces and the army, more than 300 of them were killed in the last week.  However, this is the number of dead civilian who have been identified only. The number of soldiers is not included. Activists assume that the real number is much higher, since a lot of dead bodies could not be identified yet, and there was no possibility to get the numbers of Daraa’s and it’s suburbs martyrs for the past few days. 
Arrest and Torture: Over the last weeks, more than 9500 people have been randomly arrested and tortured. In Daraa and in Banias, Prison- and Torture camps have been set up in the local Football stadium. There are several people who talked to the media and other who are willing to talk about what they faced while they were arrested.
Under Siege: Three cities are still under siege by Military and security Forces: Daraa and it’s suburbs in the south (under siege for 18 days), Duma near Damascus, Moadhamyah, Homs and Baniyas at the coast.

New strategy by the government: For more than one week the Assad Regime is using mass arrests as a new strategy. Whole Cities or part of towns get surrounded by security forces, power  and phone lines get cut off, and secret police goes from house to house to arrest people. After being arrested, people get tortured and be released after some days, so that they can tell others about their horrible experiences. It is the same strategy Iran has used in the green revolution in 2009 to scare people and they think this way the protesters will stop demonstrating.

For English updated reliable Twitter please check:
https://twitter.com/#!/SyrianJasmine OR https://twitter.com/#!/MalathAumran and for Arabic follow  https://twitter.com/#!/ZainSyr