Syria’s crackdown on protesters is continuing. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has poured troops into a suburb of Damascus overnight while his tanks pounded the southern city of Daraa. In the Damascus suburb of Douma, white buses brought in soldiers in full combat gear. More than 2,000 security police were deployed to man checkpoints and check identity cards in an effort to arrest pro-democracy sympathizers. Walid Saffour is the president of the Syrian Human Rights Committee.

Walid Saffour, president of Syrian Human Rights Committee: “The more the violence, the more the protest in Syria. And now there is no going back to the days of fear, to the days of repression. The Syrians want their freedom, want democracy, want equality.”

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice spoke about Syria Tuesday at the United Nations.

Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations: “Instead of listening to their own people, President Assad is disingenuously blaming outsiders while at the same time seeking Iranian assistance in repressing Syria’s citizens, through the same brutal tactics that had been used by the Iranian regime. The United States will continue to stand up for democracy and respect for human rights, the universal rights that all human beings deserve in Syria and around the world.”