Assad Appoints New Governor for Hama after Huge Protests
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday issued a decree naming Anas Naim as the new governor of the central city of Hama after firing Ahmed Khaled Abdul Aziz from the post on July 2, a day after huge anti-regime protests labeled the largest ever.
On July 2 some 500,000 people took to the streets, without security forces intervening, activists said, calling it the single largest demonstration of its kind since the pro-democracy movement erupted on March 15.
And on Friday some 450,000 Syrians rallied after the weekly Muslim prayers in Hama under the banner "No to dialogue" with Assad's regime and called for its fall, according to activists.
Hama is a city with a bloody past where an estimated 20,000 people were killed in 1982 when the army put down an Islamist revolt against the rule of Bashar’s late father, Hafez al-Assad.
Source: Agence France Presse
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