Syrian capital a maze of checkpoints, blast walls

Instead of a quick half-hour trip home from her class at Damascus University, Lama Issa says she now must maneuver through security checkpoints, army tanks and blast walls — a two-hour journey that is often terrifying.

That's the new price of an uneasy security these days in the Syrian capital, the seat of power for President Bashar Assad.

Rebels have set their sights on the city of 1.7 million, and fighting on the outskirts is raising fears that Damascus soon could be facing the most brutal battle of the Syrian civil war.

"All these checkpoints make me feel like we're under occupation. Yet I have to remind myself that these are Syrian soldiers," Issa, a 22-year-old architecture student, told The Associated Press in the capital.

It is largely through a massive security clampdown that Assad maintains his grip over much of the capital. But the checkpoints and clogged traffic are adding to Syrians' woes, including power cuts lasting several hours a day, shortages of heating fuel and diesel, and long lines for bread. Many city streets and squares are teeming with soldiers.

Residents say the disruption is hurting an already-struggling economy and turning daily life into an agonizing and frightening ordeal.

The Syrian military began setting up checkpoints separating Damascus and its mostly poor, Sunni Muslim suburbs early on in the uprising against Assad. Although the revolt began with largely peaceful protests in the country's south in March 2011, the battle soon was transformed into a ferocious civil war that the opposition says has killed more than 40,000 people.

The Damascus suburbs, such as the sprawling town of Douma, became opposition hotbeds, and the government tried to isolate them from the capital.

Activists and residents say the checkpoints and other security measures increased markedly in the summer after a bomb ripped through a meeting of top security chiefs. Several were killed, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defense minister. Rebels then made an unsuccessful run on the capital and have been trying to push back in ever since.

Fighting around Damascus and the international airport a few miles south of the city has intensified in recent days as rebels press a battle they hope will finish Assad's regime. The government responded with an unprecedented tightening of security, and some of the measures — like endless checkpoints and blast walls — seem more like Baghdad in the worst days of the Iraq war.

Activists estimate there are now about 250 fixed checkpoints in Damascus, in addition to those set up by pro-regime vigilantes known as the Popular Committees and the "flying checkpoints" that are set up briefly and then dismantled.

They say the checkpoints and the young soldiers manning them are often there to taunt, provoke or intimidate people just as much as they are there to guard against rebel attacks.

At a checkpoint near the town of Kisweh just south of Damascus, troops stand around a large picture of Assad placed on a wooden placard amid sandbags, adorned with pro-regime slogans. "We are the soldiers of Assad," the poster says.

A group of uniformed soldiers search approaching cars at a snail's pace, first asking for identification, then asking random questions about what's on the ID papers, where the auto's occupants are from and where they are going. Motorists also are asked to open the trunk for a thorough search as lines of cars stretch up to a mile (a half-kilometer) or more.

Issa, who lives in the town of Sahnaya southwest of Damascus, says her younger brother was seized at one of the checkpoints two months ago and has not been heard from since.

"I detest these checkpoints, even though I know that many of the soldiers standing at them are hapless. But it frustrates me deeply to see their pictures, their flags, their uniforms," she said.

The checkpoints are particularly cumbersome for some students and employees, cutting off neighborhoods from each other and isolating the city from its suburbs. Many residents have been forced to quit their jobs or relocate rather than spend hours in what some refer to as the "death traps." Others finish work or homework in their cars, or sleep at friends' houses.

In addition to the checkpoints, a maze of concrete blast walls and barriers protect the entrances to government ministries, security buildings and other institutions.

The capital has seen a series of suicide bombings, many of them against security targets, as well as car bombings in pro-regime neighborhoods.

Omayyad Square, one of the city's two huge landmark plazas, often has two checkpoints. Sabaa Bahrat Square, which in the beginning of the uprising was home of huge pro-Assad demonstrations, has several roadblocks and often has trucks parked to block roads.

A 28-year-old salesman who lives in the Damascus suburb of Daraya recently quit his job because he fears arrest at a checkpoint after one of the soldiers there threatened to throw him in jail for six months if he didn't replace his damaged ID card.

A 55-year-old minibus driver says his work hours have been cut in half because of clogged traffic and the fear of kidnappings after dark. A few days ago, two drivers were kidnapped by gunmen who asked for $13,000 in ransom for each, while a third was killed when he refused to take a passenger to a troubled area, he said.

The salesman and the minibus driver spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation from the government.

Activists have taken to social networking sites to inform each other and post updates on checkpoints.

A newspaper called Local Grapes, started recently by the Daraya coordinating committees, published tips for activists in case they absolutely must cross a checkpoint. It suggested that they not carry anything identifying them, but rather use the ID of a deceased friend or someone abroad.

"Don't show distress," goes the tip. "Take a deep breath, answer questions in a calm way, and act like they don't know anything about you."

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Egypt's army moves to restore order after protests

CAIRO (AP) — The Egyptian army sealed off the presidential palacewith tanks and barbed wire Thursday, a day after fierce clashes between supporters and opponents of the Islamist leader over a disputed constitution killed at least six people.

Compounding President Mohammed Morsi's woes, another member of his 17-person advisory panel resigned in protest of his handling of the crisis, bringing the total to seven in the past two weeks. Rafik Habib, the only Coptic Christian adviser, was the latest to resign.

Protesters defied a deadline to vacate the area, demanding that Morsi rescind his Nov. 22 decrees giving himself near-absolute power and withdraw the disputed draft constitution passed by his Islamist allies that is headed for a Dec. 15 referendum. But the situation was calm throughout the day.

Thousands of Morsi supporters camped overnight outside the palace after driving away opposition activists who had been staging a sit-in there, prompting the wild street battles that spread to upscale residential areas nearby. The Brotherhood, which had erected metal barricades and manned checkpoints with rocks and empty glass bottles overnight, withdrew from the area by afternoon.

"I don't want Morsi to back down," said Khaled Omar, a Brotherhood supporter who had camped out. "We are not defending him. We are defending Islam, which is what people want."

The violence on Wednesday was the worst since Morsi was elected in June.

The crisis began with Morsi's decrees setting himself above judicial oversight. That was followed by the hurried passing of a constitution draft by his Islamist allies, moves that deeply polarized the country and took political tensions to a height not seen since the uprising nearly two years ago that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi remains determined to press forward with the Dec. 15 referendum to pass the new charter. The opposition, for its part, is refusing dialogue unless Morsi rescinds the decrees and shelves the disputed charter.

The intensity of the overnight violence, with Morsi's Islamist backers and largely secular protesters lobbing firebombs and rocks at each other, raised the specter that the country would grow even more polarized and violent.

Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, said late Wednesday that Morsi's rule was "no different" than Mubarak's.

"In fact, it is perhaps even worse," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate told a news conference after he accused the president's supporters of a "vicious and deliberate" attack on peaceful demonstrators outside the palace.

Morsi's moves over the constitution have re-energized and largely unified the previously fractious opposition.

Inside the palace gates, Morsi held crisis meetings Thursday with Cabinet members and military leaders, including the defense minister, according to a presidential statement.

"The president discussed ways to deal with the situation regarding the political, security and legal landscapes so that Egypt can achieve stability and preserve the gains of the revolution," the statement said.

The renewed violence sent Egypt's main stock market index down 4.6 percent. The loss was about 10.4 billion Egyptian pounds (around $1.7 billion). Persistent capital outflows since last year's uprising have forced the central bank to burn through its foreign currency reserves to support the Egyptian pound. The Central Bank of Egypt released figures Thursday that show foreign reserves at the end of November stood at just $15 billion, nearly half of what they were 19 months ago.

The army's Republican Guard, an elite unit assigned to protect the president and his palaces, surrounded the complex and gave protesters on both sides until 3 p.m. (1300 GMT, 8 a.m. EDT) to clear the vicinity, according to an official statement. The statement also announced a ban on protests outside any of the nation's presidential palaces.

Six tanks and two armored vehicles belonging to the Republican Guard were stationed at roads leading to the palace in the upscale Cairo district of Heliopolis. The guard's commander, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Zaki, sought to assure Egyptians that his forces were not taking sides.

"They will not be a tool to crush protesters and no force will be used against Egyptians," he said in comments carried by the official MENA news agency.

Several dozen anti-Morsi protesters continued to demonstrate across the street from the palace past the military's afternoon deadline, chanting slogans against the president. Thousands marched through Cairo toward the palace and joined the protest Thursday evening.

"We raise Egypt's flag but they raise the Brotherhood flag. This is the difference," protester Magdi Farag said as he held the tri-colored national flag stained with blood from his friend's injury in clashes the night before.

"We will not leave until he leaves," Farag said about the president.

Brotherhood supporters outside the palace accused opposition protesters of being Mubarak loyalists or foot soldiers in a coup attempt.

"They want to take over power in a coup. They are conspiring against Morsi and we want him to crack down on them," said one, Ezzedin Khoudir. "There must be arrests."

Outside the president's house in his hometown of Zagazig, about 80 kilometers (50miles) north of Cairo, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who had gathered, security officials said.

Egypt has seen sporadic clashes throughout nearly two years of political turmoil after Mubarak's ouster in February 2011. But this was by far the worst violence between segments of the public.

The violence began when the Brotherhood called on its members to head to the presidential palace to stand up against what a statement termed as attempts by the opposition to impose its will. The group called on their supporters to "protect legitimacy after an infringement by a group the night before that imagined it could shake legitimacy or force its will on people."

Thousands of Brotherhood members and other Islamists then descended on the area Wednesday afternoon, chasing away some 300 opposition protesters who had been staging a peaceful sit-in outside the palace's main gate a day after tens of thousands converged outside the palace to denounce the president.

Clashes later ensued, with the two sides using rocks, sticks and firebombs. Riot police were deployed to intervene.

The Muslim Brotherhood were chanting "as if they are in a holy war against the infidels," businessman Magdi Ashri said of the clashes. Protesting outside the palace again Thursday evening, Ashri said that he was once a supporter of the president, but after last night has changed his position.

The Brotherhood also said three of its offices outside Cairo were torched by protesters Wednesday.

Unlike Mubarak, Morsi was elected in June after a narrow victory in Egypt's first free presidential elections. But many activists who supported him have jumped to the opposition after his Nov. 22 decrees and the rushed constitution drafted by his Islamist allies despite a walkout by minority Christian and liberal factions.

The Health Ministry said six people were killed and 644 injured by beatings, gunshot wounds and tear gas inhalation. The Brotherhood said all those killed were their supporters, but the claim could not be immediately verified.

A journalist for the independent daily Al-Fagr newspaper was in critical condition after being shot in the head with a rubber bullet, according to a staff member who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in exchange for releasing the information ahead of a formal announcement. The newspaper said it did not know who fired the rubber bullet.

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Military Drones Prowl US Skies

An MQ-1B Predator unmanned aircraft takes off for a training mission at Creech Air Force Base, Nev.

Military drones used to track terrorists or insurgents in Afghanistan have also been flying across the U.S. homeland. Newly released documents show U.S. drone flights by the Air Force, Marine Corps and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the first time.

The Air Force has tested drones in U.S. skies ranging from hand-launched Ravens to the larger Reaper drones responsible for targeting and killing people overseas — all recorded through the Federal Aviation Administration licenses required to fly in national airspace. That information became public through a Freedom of Information Act request from the nonprofit digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

"The FAA recently announced it wants to slow down drone integration into U.S. skies due to privacy concerns," the EFF said. "We are hopeful this indicates the agency is finally changing its views."

But the advocacy organization noted that the FAA documents don't show any oversight of how drone flights could affect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.

The advocates run a U.S. drone census that aims to track drone flights made in the homeland by the U.S. military, law enforcement agencies, local police departments and universities. Part of that effort has involved requesting the FAA to release documents showing what agencies and organizations applied for licenses to fly drones in U.S. national airspace.

Drones flown by the Air Force near places such as Virginia Beach, Va., have the cameras and sensors to track moving ground targets for hours at a time. The Reaper drone capable of both spying on people and firing missiles at them has spent much of its time prowling the skies above Nevada, California and Utah. [Rise of the Drones: Photos of Unmanned Aircraft]

Some Air Force operators have even practiced surveillance missions they might carry out in Afghanistan by tracking civilian cars on the highways, according to a New York Times report.

The Air Force proved the most accommodating by allowing the related FAA records to go public. The Marine Corps chose to redact so much material from the records that the EFF had a difficult time figuring out the Marines' drone programs.

On the civilian side, the drone records show how many U.S. law enforcement agencies want to use drones for spying on drug activities in the war on drugs. But some police departments — specifically the Orange County, Fla., sheriff's department and Mesa County, Colo., sheriff — chose to withhold some or most of the information about drone flights by claiming that public information could threaten their police work.

The FAA released the new batch of documents more than a year and a half after the EFF filed its Freedom of Information Act request, but has yet to release more than half of the available drone records. The EFF called that "unacceptable."

"Before the public can properly assess privacy issues raised by drone flights, it must have access to the FAA's records as a whole," the EFF said.

This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily, or on Facebook.

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Hamas chief's Gaza visit sign of regional embrace

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The supreme Hamas leader's first-ever visit to the Gaza Strip this weekend signals growing regional acceptance of the Islamic militant movement in charge of the once isolated territory and grudging acquiescence by Israel.

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, who has positioned himself as a pragmatist and enjoys the backing of regional heavyweights Egypt, Turkey and Qatar, could also use the trip to lobby for re-election.

Mashaal is to arrive Friday for a three-day tour, with Hamas' 25th anniversary rally on Saturday set as the centerpiece. He'll visit the homes of two Hamas icons assassinated by Israel, military chief Ahmed Jabari and spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

His landmark visit comes two weeks after the bloodiest round of Israel-Gaza fighting in four years, which included the killing of Jabari as well as hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on Hamas targets and an equal number of Gaza rockets fired into Israel.

Hamas has portrayed itself as the victor because Israel agreed to an Egyptian-brokered truce after eight days, instead of sending ground troops, as it initially threatened.

On Thursday, workers set up the stage for the anniversary rally, including a 13-meter-high (43-foot-high) replica of an M-75, a missile Hamas has fired deep into Israel. "Made in Gaza," was written on the rocket.

Mashaal, whose family left the West Bank when he was a child, grew up in Kuwait and moved to Qatar this year after abandoning his longtime base in Syria.

His visit coincides with the last stretch of secret internal Hamas elections that began seven months ago.

Mashaal, who has headed Hamas' decision-making political bureau since 1996, said earlier this year he is not seeking re-election, but some suggested his Gaza visit could signal a change of heart and an attempt to mollify Gaza Hamas hardliners with whom he clashed months ago.

Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri said he believes the main purpose of the trip is an attempt supported by Egypt, Turkey and Qatar to get Mashaal re-elected. "Egypt, Qatar and Turkey want Khaled Mashaal, simply because he is a moderate and can get things done between the West and the Islamists," said al-Masri.

Israel, meanwhile, appears to be looking the other way.

Israel considers Hamas a terror organization, refuses to deal with it directly and imposed a Gaza border blockade after the Hamas takeover of the territory in 2007. However, since its Gaza offensive last month, Israel has conducted indirect talks with Hamas, through Egypt, on a truce and a further easing of the Gaza border restrictions, already relaxed somewhat in recent years.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Thursday that Israel has no say over who enters Gaza from Egypt. "We have no position on different individuals within Hamas," he said when asked about the Mashaal trip. "Hamas is Hamas is Hamas."

Fifteen years ago, Mashaal came close to being assassinated by Israel. In 1997, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then in his first term, ordered Mashaal killed in retaliation for Hamas suicide bombings in Israel. Israeli agents grabbed Mashaal in the streets of the Jordanian capital of Amman and injected him with poison, but were caught, forcing Netanyahu to send an antidote that saved Mashaal's life. Netanyahu also had to release Yassin, the Hamas spiritual leader, to bring the agents back home.

While Israel has not publicly challenged Mashaal's Gaza trip, Hamas' smaller sister group Islamic Jihadsaid Thursday that Israel is trying to prevent its exiled leaders from joining the Hamas chief on his journey. Two members of Islamic Jihad said Israel relayed warnings through Egypt that it would consider the Gaza truce over if Islamic Jihad's top two leaders in exile attempted to enter Gaza.

The Islamic Jihad members spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to embarrass Egypt. Israel's Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have received money and weapons from Iran, Israel's arch-enemy. During last month's cross-border fighting, Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, including Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets that landed close to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel's heartland. After the cease-fire, Mashaal thanked Iran for its military support of Gaza.

At the same time, Hamas under Mashaal has been drifting away from the Iranian-Syrian camp, particularly after Hamas' break with Syrian President Bashar Assad this year over his brutal crackdown at home.

Mashaal has been trying to move Hamas closer to its parent movement, the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni group. The Brotherhood, a rival of Shiite Muslim-led Iran, rose to power in Egypt and Tunisia after last year's Arab Spring uprisings. Mashaal also has close ties with Turkey and Qatar.

Both Egypt and Qatar have tried to broker a reconciliation deal between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, from whom Hamas seized Gaza more than five years ago. The most recent deal was signed this year by Abbas and Mashaal in the Qatari capital of Doha, but Mashaal couldn't move forward because of an uproar by Hamas hardliners in Gaza.

Senior figures in Gaza, including Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar, complained at the time that they hadn't been consulted. But mainly they balked at the idea of restoring some of Abbas' authority in Gaza ahead of new elections — as envisioned by the Doha deal.

Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide in the West Bank, said Thursday that the Mashaal visit to Gaza might help a unity deal. "This would give a chance to everyone in Gaza to hear what the agreement in Doha was about," he said.

However, the Mashaal visit and Hamas' successful dare of Israel — firing rockets toward Tel Aviv without triggering an Israeli ground offensive — also signaled that the Gaza branch of Hamas is becoming increasingly influential at the expense of the exiles.

In the past, the exile-based political bureau was the main decision-maker and conduit for funds. In running Gaza, Hamas leaders there are increasingly making fateful decisions for the movement.

With Hamas basking in its self-declared victory over Israel, the group might be even less willing than before to compromise with Abbas for the sake of a unity deal. At the same time, reconciliation faces a host of other obstacles, including opposition from Abbas' Fatah movement and lack of a clear path forward, including how to merge rival security forces.

Hamas leaders in Gaza portrayed the Mashaal visit as part of an extended celebration of what they see as their military triumph. "Mashaal is coming at a time when we are celebrating victory in the war," said Salah Bardawil, a local Hamas leader. "A Hamas leader should come and celebrate with his people."

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