Syria Arrests Iconic Blogger Ghazzawi, Rights Activist Darwish

Security forces on Thursday arrested blogger Razan Ghazzawi, icon of the 11-month uprising in Syria, along with rights activist Mazen Darwish and 12 others, opposition figures said.

Human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni said Ghazzawi was arrested in an early afternoon raid on the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, which is located in central Damascus and is headed by Darwish.

"We at the Syrian Center for Legal Studies condemn these arrests and call on Syrian authorities to immediately release them," Bunni said in a statement.

Opposition figure Louai Hussein earlier told Agence France Presse that Darwish's wife was also among those arrested.

Hussein said the reason behind the arrests was unclear.

The opposition Local Coordination Committees said "the regime's security forces, backed by armed operatives, raided the office of activist and journalist Mazen Darwish ... in central Damascus after sealing off the area."

Darwish, 38, has been detained a number of times, most recently last March, when he was held for one day after speaking out against the government crackdown on the southern province of Daraa.