Anti-Assad Syrians break into Cairo embassy

Anti-Assad Syrians break into Cairo embassy

Dozens of Syrians broke into the Syrian embassy in Cairo on Friday to protest at their government's bloody crackdown on a 10-month-old popular uprising, Egyptian security sources said.

January 28, 2012 1:38 by Reuters

A Syrian diplomat said the group had made it into the embassy’s courtyard, destroying parts of the exterior gate to the compound and breaking into some administrative offices on the first and second floors of the building.

“The Syrian embassy has video cameras of the protesters that security forces and guards could not stop or push away from the embassy,” embassy spokesman Emad Arfan said, adding that there were no casualties.

A Reuters journalist who entered the embassy saw broken glass and fixtures and telephones pulled off their hooks.

“I believe that this attack was planned and coordinated from earlier,” Arfan said, adding that the embassy would resume business as usual on Sunday.

Arfan called on Egyptian security services to tighten security around the embassy.

Government forces killed another 37 people in Syria on Friday, activists and residents said, as people in Homs mourned 14 members of a family they said were slain by militiamen in one of the worst sectarian attacks during the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

The UN Security Council was to meet later in the day to discuss Syria before a possible vote next week on a new Western-Arab draft resolution aimed at halting 10 months of bloodshed. (Reporting by Ayman Samir and Ashraf Fahim, Writing by Dina Zayed; Editing by Mark Heinrich)