Around 2,000 people in southern Syria came together to protest against the government. They removed a picture of President Bashar al-Assad from the city square. This is the most recent protest in the city of Suweida. People there became very upset three weeks ago when the government stopped giving money to help with fuel, which made their difficult economic situation even worse.
The government hasn’t done anything major against the protesters yet. Suweida is in an area mostly filled with a group called the Druze, who are a minority. Even though this city has been controlled by the government and didn’t suffer as much during the big war, it’s still going through a hard time with money, just like the rest of Syria.
During the protest, the crowd said things against the government, like “We don’t want Bashar al-Assad!” Activists, who are people who work to make change, say that more and more people are joining these protests. But for now, they haven’t spread to other areas controlled by the government.
Usually, protests like this don’t happen in places controlled by the government. The police and soldiers usually act very harshly against people who don’t agree with them. Videos taken by activists and seen by Reuters showed a group of men taking down a big sign with President Assad’s picture on it. It was hanging up on a building that belonged to a group called the Farmers’ Union. Then, they closed up the doors.
In a protest before this one in Suweida, a crowd broke a statue of the old president, Hafez al-Assad. There have been some protests against the government in the province next door, Deraa, where the big protest against Assad started in 2011. But later, the government took control of that area again.
SOURCE:BBC