At about 3AM on Monday morning, more than 5.000 soldiers and 40 armored vehicles (tanks, etc….) entered the city of Dumair.
Upon their arrival they set up roadblocks, cut off roads and spread snipers and machine gun holders in high places of the city. Dumair woke up to a tragedy: Army entering the city. Employees of both private and public sector were prevented from going to work. At nine o’clock Major General Jamil Al-Hassan, Brigadier General Mohammad Rahmoun of Air force Intelligence and the Colonel in command of the Brigade 555 in the 4th division arrived to the city and asked the city notables to a meeting at the town hall and told them in summary: “we want every protester or you will see woe”. Notables tried to calm down the situation, but the answer was clear, the situation won’t be calmed and anyone going out in a demonstration will be killed. The three officers went on warning notables and asked to make sure their children stay away from any demonstration because they have orders to kill.
Residential space in Dumair city isn’t big, and because of the big number of army and security forces, the whole city was covered by their presence. Armored vehicles covered the main entrances and main streets of the city, and a barrier and soldiers were installed every 20 meters.
After tightening the security cordon on the city, the work of air force security and Shabiha (regime’s armed thugs) started. Their work consisted of patrolling the city together. Air force security used Vans and Shabiha used black SUVs, while some of them used motorbikes. Every patrol was formed of about 10 vehicles, moving in very high speed while sometimes shooting in the air. They used to have an informer with them. Informers are mostly from the city itself and know the streets and targeted houses.
The security cordon was than stretched for about 2km around the town, no one could enter or exit. Hundreds were arrested randomly. For example, if the targeted person is Mohamed Ahmed, they storm into his house. If he wasn’t found, they immediately go to others houses and arrest all people having a similar name. Note that, Ahmed family is a large one, and lots of citizens, of different ages have a similar name.
Khalid Ibrahim Al-Ghazal case is one other example of abuse they practiced. He was one of the first to call for demonstrations in Dumair city, and one of the leaders of protests. This young man had to flee the town fearing for his life after he was falsely accused of several issues. After he left, threats turned against his father, brothers and mother which pushed everyone to leave the town. Their home is empty for more than two months now. When the army stormed into the city two days ago, their empty home was raided and everything in the house (doors, furniture, etc..) was destroyed. The house looked horrible after they left.
Not to mention Khaled Ahmed Ghazal (62 years old). He’s the uncle of Khaled Ibrahim Al-Ghazal. He was arrested with Ahmed, his 18 years old and only child even though they have nothing to do with the demonstrations. Of course, they were arrested in a brutal way, the father was beaten in front of his wife and son and a bag was put on his head in a humiliating manner.
There is also a 14 year-old boy; The son of Adnan Abdul Qader Al-Khatib, he run across a security checkpoint without an ID card. The boy got afraid and ran away into the house of a neighbour. Of course, while he was fleeing, security forces were shooting in the air.
The boy entered the house of Mr. (Hassan Jabal) Abu Wael. His wife, Oum Wael was the first to receive the scared child, so she let him enter and had sworn to protect him.
Security forces at the checkpoint called their leadership and asked for reinforcement. More than 50 soldiers came and surrounded the house and tried to break into it. Abu Wael and his three sons resisted the soldiers and closed the door of their house to protect the child. Security forces informed their leadership again of what happened so they sent a tank and threatened to bomb the house. Abu Wael and his family still insisted on resisting. At that point, security forces broke the door, and brutally beaten up Abu Wael and his kids. Some neighbors tried to intervene and they were beaten up too. After all this, security forces stormed into the house, arrested Abu Wael, his three children, the child, and three neighbors and none of them was released yet.
On Tuesday, the same happened again but in another neighborhood.
The army began leaving the city at 19h00 and achieved their retreat at 21h00. As soon as they left, citizens of the town went out in a huge demonstration, to protest angrily against the injustice and aggression they seen and against the arrest of their children. Protesters expressed their outrage against the alleged “national” army and against regime endless lies. Adults left the demonstration after about an hour and only some young boys (under the age of 18) were left. During that time, three buses carrying security forces and Shabiha entered the city followed by pickup cars equipped with machine guns and started beating up the boys, and everyone who was in the street and arrested tens of young boys.
During the next day, the army spread in the city again, but in smaller numbers and without armored vehicles, that remained in the military housing near the city.