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MIDDLE EAST

Syrian Protesters Take to

Streets as Airstrikes Ease

By ANNE BARNARD MARCH 4, 2016

BEIRUT, Lebanon Street protests erupted across insurgent-held areas of Syria

on Friday, as demonstrators took advantage of the relative lull in airstrikes during

a partial truce, coming out in the largest numbers in years to declare that even

What is pre-

after five punishing years of war they still wanted political change.
Baathist?

Under the slogan The Revolution Continues, demonstrators waved the

green, white and black pre-Baathist flag adopted during the early, largely peaceful

stages of the revolt, before the proliferation of armed Islamist factions with black

jihadist banners.

It was impossible to gauge what percentage of Syrians the demonstrators

represented, out of the millions living in insurgent-held areas or, for that matter,

in government-held areas or as refugees abroad. But many protesters, reached by

telephone and text message, said they aimed to show that they were determined to

resume demonstrations seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad as soon as

there was even a partial respite from airstrikes by the government and its Russian

allies.
Commander of what

rebel group?

The protests were all the more surprising in that the insurgency is struggling

militarily, squeezed between pro-government forces and those of the Islamic

State.

Ahmad al-Saud, a commander of a rebel group that has received weapons and

aid from the United States and its allies, appeared in the crowd at a protest in his

hometown, Maarat al-Noaman, in the northern province of Idlib, according to

A protesters

prospective

on what

this stands for. Another word for government

photographs widely shared online.

We are not fans of killing, but the regime forced us to fight, was the

protesters message, said a local activist who goes by the pseudonym Ibrahim al-

Idlibi for his safety.
He can't express his

option without fearing

for his safety.

The demonstrations came as electricity gradually returned to areas across

Syria after a mysterious power failure on Thursday took down what is left of the

national grid and disrupted Internet service.

Supporters and opponents of the government alike fiercely speculated on

social media over the cause of the problem. The state news agency, SANA, said the

Internet disruption was caused by sudden damage to one of the hubs of the
They

national telecommunications system. Pro-government news portals quoted the

may

hinting
minister of electricity as saying that the cutoff had to do with a technical fault in
that the
the valves supplying fuel to the power grid.
protest had someone get upset shutting o the electricity.

A government police officer stationed in Homs vented his frustration in a text

message. Weve been hours with no electricity, he wrote. I swear to God Im

suffocating.

He complained that some parts of Syria had electricity nearly round the clock,

while others had just an hour or two a day.

What other

parts?
Perhaps the greater mystery was how, after five years of war, much of

government-held Syria and some insurgent-held areas remain on a national grid.

Hwaida Saad and Maher Samaan contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on March 5, 2016, on Page A7 of the New York edition with the

headline: Protesters in Syria Take Advantage of a Lull in Airstrikes.

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Summary:

In the article above it talked about how Syrian protesters want to see a political change in their
country. They referred to it as "The Revolution Continues" and were waving white and black flags.
Many people were calling and texting loved ones to make sure they were alive after the attack they
were under. One man goes by a dierent name when expressing his opinion in fear that something
may happen to him. Some protesters said that they have no choice but to fight back because its
the only option the government has given them. One man said " We are not fans of killing but the
regime has forced us to fight." of course no one blames them because of all the chaos they have
been through.

Response:

I was surprised on how this article jumped from subject to subject. For it being The New York
Times it really didn't talk about what happened at the protest, they kind of just stated that it
happened. They gradually started talking about how the electricity was cut o and how it aected
the daily life. It really opened my eyes because I hear it a lot on the news but reading it from people
that have actually been through this is crazy. It is depressing to know that it has become the norm
for their society.

Questions:

1) Does their government show any signs to put trust in them?

2) Why target Aleppo?

3) What started this conflict?