Nusra deflects blame for protest suppression ; ‘mandate flag… sows division’
▻http://syriadirect.org/news/nusra-deflects-blame-for-protest-suppression-%E2%80%98mandate-flag%E2%8
There were two kinds of flags carried at the protest, said a second protester who requested anonymity. “The first, and the most widespread, was a white flag with the words ‘No God but God, Mohamed is the Prophet of God,’” and the second was the mandate flag.
When some protesters insisted on raising the disputed flag anyway, masked men began beating people and confiscating cameras, said the same protester.
“They pulled one young guy into a café across from the clock tower square and started beating him until other protesters were able to pull him out,” he said.
The masked men arrested 10 protesters and smashed five cameras and three camera phones throughout the dispersal, three protesters told Syria Direct.
Once the mandate flags were gathered up and confiscated the men replaced them with black Jabhat al-Nusra flags, said the eyewitnesses.
Despite the security personnel driving Victory Army vehicles, the men who dispersed the protest were acting specifically on behalf of Jabhat al-Nusra and Jund al-Aqsa, an official with Ahrar a-Sham, one of the largest fighting groups within the rebel coalition, told Syria Direct on Tuesday.
(L’article nous dit en passant qu’il y avait deux genres de drapeaux dans la manif ; curieusement les vidéos Youtube qui ont fait le tour du Web ne montraient jamais celui avec la chahada – “the most widespread”.)