Beirut – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dismissed the governor of the key central city of Hama on Saturday in apparent political payback after hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the largest demonstration yet against Assad’s authoritarian rule.
The move, announced by the state-run news agency SANA, was seen by anti-government activists as possibly signaling a renewed crackdown on the city.
SANA’s report gave no reason for the firing of Gov. Ahmed Abdul-Aziz a day after an estimated 300,000 people joined an anti-government rally in Hama, according to activists and YouTube videos of the event – marking the largest single turnout since the uprising began in March.
Crowd estimates and other details in Syria cannot be independently verified. The Syrian government has banned most foreign media from the country and restricted coverage.
The surprising, massive outpouring in Hama could give renewed impetus to the anti-government uprising in Syria, which had settled into a cycle of protests and retreat in recent weeks.
Omar Idibi, an anti-Assad activist based in Beirut, said Abdul-Aziz was viewed as leaning toward the protesters by reportedly urging security forces to avoid another bloodbath after at least 65 people were killed in a crackdown last month in Hama.
He “is accused of being sympathetic to the demonstrators,” Idibi said.
Activists said Syrian government forces withdrew from Hama last month after the deadly assault on a demonstration in the city, which carries important symbolism as a center of resistance.
In 1982, Assad’s late father, Hafez Assad, ordered Syrian forces to storm the city to crush an uprising, leaving between 10,000 and 25,000 people dead, rights groups say.
While offering vague promises of reform, the president appears to be relying on two elite units to conduct violent crackdowns against flaring demonstrations throughout Syria, said Lebanon-based activist Wissam Tarif.
The security forces appear overstretched, Tarif said. As a result, Syrian forces use a tactic akin to swarming bees: surrounding and attacking an area before moving on to their next target. They have particularly focused on areas considered possible bases for anti-government activists, including the central town of Homs that is near Hama.
In Homs, at least 21 demonstrators were killed in the past two weeks as security forces try to choke off resistance to Assad’s rule, said Nadim Houry of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Idibi said he feared that security forces who were operating in Homs would turn their attention to Hama.
