Nasser al-Shami, a heavyweight who shared the bronze medal in Athens, was in stable condition after being hit by shotgun pellets in the city of Hama, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdul-Rahman said he spoke to the doctor who treated the athlete.
Syrian troops and tanks sealed off Hama and blocked the roads leading in, an apparent attempt to crush growing dissent there and retake the city one month after security forces withdrew. About 300,000 protesters held huge protests against the regime in Hama last week, a sign the city was spiraling out of government control.
“There is some kind of a siege on the city. They are closing all roads leading to Hama,” said Syria-based rights activist Mustafa Osso.
Hama, which has a history of militancy against the Assad regime, was targeted in a major government crackdown nearly three decades ago. In 1982, Assad’s late father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, ordered his troops to crush a rebellion by Sunni fundamentalists, killing between 10,000 and 25,000 people, rights groups say.
Also Monday, activists said Syrian security forces opened fire on people fleeing to neighboring Turkey, wounding a mother and her young son.
Thousands of Syrians have already taken shelter in refugee camps in Turkey, a source of deep embarrassment to Damascus. To the south, in the Damascus suburb of Dumair, armored personnel carriers rolled in after all telecommunications were cut, an activist in the area said.
The activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said soldiers and plainclothes policemen were randomly detaining all men from teenagers to people in their 60s.
The uprising against Assad has lasted nearly four months despite a deadly government crackdown that has brought international condemnation and sanctions. Assad is facing the most serious challenge to his family’s four decades of rule in Syria.
Activists say security forces have killed more than 1,400 people—most of them unarmed protesters—since mid-March. The regime disputes the toll, blaming“armed thugs” and foreign conspirators for the unrest.
Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted media coverage, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events on the ground. But witness accounts, including interviews with refugees who have fled to neighboring countries, indicate a brutal crackdown on the protest movement.
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