Indian Military

LATAKIA: Syria's army was out in force Sunday in a port city scarred by unrest aimed at symbols of the government, which is struggling to put down an unprecedented nationwide outbreak of protest and dissent. An Associated Press photographer saw traces of what appeared to have been a serious battle in Latakia's main Sheik Daher square.
Two police cars had been smashed and rocks and telephone cables torn from overhead poles were strewn across the streets and sidewalks. The offices housing SyriaTel, the mobile phone company owned in large part by a cousin of President Bashar Assad, had been burned. Syria has been rocked by more than a week of anti-government demonstrations that begin with protests in a drought-parched southern agricultural city and exploded nationwide on Friday.
Security forces have opened fire on demonstrators in at least six places, leading to dozens of deaths. Syria's government said that unknown gunmen firing from rooftops and prowling the streets of Latakia were to blame for two days of violence in the city that killed 12 people.

Assad's regime, one of the most repressive in the Middle East, has tried to balance the use of force with promises of reform. A lawmaker told The Associated Press on Sunday that he expected Assad to soon announce that he was lifting a nearly 50-year state of emergency, although the timing remained unclear.
Member of Parliament Mohammed Habash said lawmakers expected to receive a memo from Assad laying out a plan to end the state of emergency, possibly during a parliament session Sunday evening. He did not provide details. The state of emergency has been in force since Assad's Baath party took power on March 8, 1963. It lets the government to detain suspects without trial and exercise strict control over the media.