Activists Storm Syria Embassies in Kuwait, Cairo
Kuwaiti authorities arrested several people when hundreds of angry Syrians and local activists stormed the Syrian embassy in the Gulf state on Saturday, the interior ministry said.
"A group of Syrian expats stormed the Syrian embassy in Kuwait, removed the flag and destroyed utilities," the ministry said in a statement.
Security personnel assigned to guard the embassy "fired warning gunshots" but protesters still stormed the embassy which eventually left a number of Kuwaiti security men injured, the ministry said.
Earlier, the independent Kuwait Association for Human Rights said on its Twitter page that at least two protesters were injured in the scramble to flee after embassy guards fired gunshots into the air.
In its statement, the interior ministry said that the Syrian ambassador and other embassy staff escaped unhurt.
Police arrested a number of those who stormed the mission, including several Kuwaitis and authorities were still looking for others, it said.
Kuwaiti activist Abdulaziz al-Mutairi was among those arrested, his friends said in messages posted on Twitter.
Newly elected Islamist MP Osama Munawer called in a statement for the "immediate release of those arrested."
Also in Cairo, about 50 protesters, mostly Syrians, tore down the gate to the Syrian embassy, located in the upscale Garden City neighborhood, before bursting inside the building at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT), an employee told Agence France Presse.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said that the embassy's walls were charred and broken glass littered the ground, along with damaged furniture and computers.
Egyptian police were deployed around the mission by daylight.
Also Saturday, dozens of Syrians protested outside their country's consulate in the Saudi port city of Jeddah.
"With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for the martyrs," chanted the demonstrators, who gradually dispersed after security forces arrived.
Source: Agence France Presse
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