Mon 15 June 2020:
Syrian security forces detained several demonstrators Monday in a southern city that has seen days of anti-government protests amid a crash in the local currency and sharp price increases, opposition activists said.
Monday’s crackdown is the first since protests began in the city of Suweidah last week, where dozens of people have been demonstrating every day over deteriorating living conditions.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said regime supporters attacked the protesters in Sweida with “hard objects” wounding several. It said security forces detained more than 10 protesters.
The Observatory said the detentions led to another protest in which the demonstrators called for the release of those detained.
Many protesters are calling for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, who has for the past nine years led a brutal crackdown against dissent since anti-regime protests first erupted in 2011. Demonstrators have also voiced sympathy for opposition Idlib and Daraa, the former southern rebel province which has also witnessed an uprising against the regime.
The Suwayda 24, an activist collective covering events in the province, said security forces detained four protesters.
The economic meltdown comes ahead of new US sanctions against any entity or country that does business with the Syrian regime. The sanctions are due to take effect later this week but they have shaken the already teetering economy.
Suweidah is controlled by a patchwork of local militias, some with a rocky relationship with the regime, and government security forces.
The southern city has been prone to instability and crime during the war, despite being less affected by direct fighting.
Suweidah has seen various challenges to regime rule, including by the Sheikhs of Dignity, whose leader – Sheikh Wahed Balaus – was murdered in 2015.
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