Syrians pelt, then trap, U.S. envoy
Robert Ford was visiting an opposition leader. He'd angered Syrian officials before.
BEIRUT - Angry supporters of President Bashar Assad's regime hurled tomatoes and eggs at the U.S. ambassador to Syria Thursday as he entered the office of a leading opposition figure and then tried to break into the building, trapping him inside for three hours.
The Obama administration blamed the Syrian government for the attack in Damascus, saying it was part of a campaign to intimidate American diplomats in the country. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the attack as "wholly unjustified."
Ambassador Robert Ford, an outspoken critic of Assad's crackdown on the revolt against the regime, has angered Syrian authorities before by showing support for the uprising. The latest incident promises to raise tensions even further.
Ford came under attack by about 100 Assad supporters as he arrived for the meeting with Hassan Abdul-Azim, who heads the outlawed Arab Socialist Democratic Union party. Abdul-Azim is a strong critic of Assad's regime and was briefly detained by authorities earlier this year.
Such incidents are usually not spontaneous in Syria, and Thursday's attack came amid high tension between the two nations, as well as accusations by Damascus that Washington is inciting violence in the country.
The protesters were ready with eggs and tomatoes when the delegation arrived and threw them at the Americans as they entered the building.
In Washington, the State Department said a rowdy, violent mob tried to attack Ford and several American embassy workers in Damascus. Spokesman Mark Toner said Ford and his colleagues were unharmed and are now safe.
However, several heavily armored embassy vehicles sent to help extricate them from the situation were badly damaged when the same crowd hurled rocks, White House and State Department officials said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called the attack "unjustifiable," but said the United States had no plans to recall Ford from Damascus.
Syria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that as soon as it was contacted by the U.S. Embassy regarding Ford, it called in security authorities, who "took all measures needed to protect the ambassador and his team and secured their return to their work in accordance with Syria's international commitments."
Other Mideast Developments
Bahrain's special security court on Thursday sentenced a protester to death for killing a policeman, and gave doctors and nurses who treated injured protesters during the country's uprising this year lengthy prison sentences, a lawyer said. Attorney Mohsen al-Alawi said the tribunal, set up during Bahrain's emergency rule, convicted and sentenced 13 medical professionals each to 15 years in prison.
For the second time this month, Egyptian security officials raided the Cairo office of Al Jazeera Live Egypt, roughing up its staff, detaining an editor and confiscating equipment, the news chief said Thursday. Egyptian authorities had said the station and its staff were operating without permits.
Saudi Arabia held its second nationwide vote ever on Thursday, a male-only election for powerless municipal councils. The balloting comes just days after the king decreed that women would be able to participate for the first time in the next local elections in 2015. - AP
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