inews reports:

Anti-regime protests that are spreading across Syria could be the spark of another revolution, opposition activists have said, 12 years after similar demonstrations turned into a full-scale civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Videos on social media have shown hundreds of people gathering in the main square of Suwayda, waving flags of the Druze minority and chanting “long live Syria, and down with Bashar al-Assad”. Others shout: “Step down Bashar, we want to live in dignity” and “Syria is ours, not Assad’s”.

Protests broke out in 2011 calling for the removal of the authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad, before spreading across the country and descending into a war that continues to this day, with parts of the north-west still under the control of anti-regime opposition forces.

Since August, mass demonstrations have erupted across the country, with Syrians in regime-held areas of Suwayda, Daraa, Aleppo, and Deir Ezzor now calling for the removal of the authoritarian president and his government.

Since 20 August, people in the southern province of Suwayda – historically, a regime stronghold and mainly inhabited by the country’s Druze minority – have been showing their discontent. Initially driven by the government’s economic mismanagement and deteriorating living conditions, protesters swiftly began calling for the overthrow of the regime. [Continue reading…]