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Source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/07/on_assad_s_doorstep?page=full
The Revolution Is Coming to Damascus
(Foreign Policy) Julien Barnes-Dacey - Damascus is increasingly turning on the Assad regime. Recently, security forces opened fire in the center of the capital to disperse a small gathering of peaceful demonstrators just a few hundred meters from parliament. The mood has markedly shifted away from the regime over the last couple of months. The decision by Damascene merchants to go on an unprecedented strike in response to the Houla killings marked an important escalation of local defiance. Many Damascus suburbs fall under effective rebel control at night. Anti-regime protests are spreading to districts like Midan and Kafr Sousa, just minutes from downtown Damascus. The writer, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, was based in Syria from 2007 to 2010.