Arab uprising infects ‘immune’ Syria

The Syrian regime in Damascus, which President Bashar Assad recently claimed was “immune” from the political upheaval gripping the Arab world, is now grappling with street protests on a scale not seen for a generation.

The trouble hasn’t yet taken root in the heavily guarded capital of one of the Middle East’s repressive states outside of the occasional skirmish. But the regime has cracked down harshly against unrest in the poverty-stricken southern city of Daraa in recent days in which troops fired on protesters, killing at least five and possibly as many as 25.

Tens of thousands of protesters torched the offices of the ruling Baath party, the Palace of Justice and a cellphone company run by Assad’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf. Damascus blamed unidentified hidden hands for “acts of sabotage.”