Syrian Unrest Puts Long-spared Damascus on Edge

Security has tightened in Damascus, the city that until now had been spared the worst of the daily bloodshed that has marked the pro-democracy revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Politics, city residents said, is now firmly part of the lives of those who until now functioned almost normally despite ten months of protests and crackdown that the United Nations says has killed 5,400 people.

The deadly violence that has spread across the rest of the country is fast approaching the capital, residents said.

"We are terrified by the idea of what events may follow," a 45-year-old woman said.

Underneath a veneer of calm, a deep tension is felt, the woman said.

Officials recently said a general was killed in the city on his way to work by "armed terrorists".

Fears are further fueled by nearby skirmishes pitting soldiers against deserters, most recently in the town of Douma, 20 kilometers from the capital.

And activists on the ground last week announced the seizure of the restive town of Zabadani, 45 kilometers northwest of Damascus, taken by opposition forces of the Free Syrian Army.

Also near Damascus, towns like Zamalka, Saqba, Hamuriya, Kafr Betna were "freed on Sunday with independence flags unfurled on the main squares," an opposition source told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

The Damascus suburbs, teeming with the young and unemployed, have been a hotbed of unrest since the early days of the revolt against the Assad regime 10 months ago.

And now, though smaller and less frequent, protests have reached Damascus itself including residential neighborhoods like Midan, Mezze and Kafarsuseh.

"Damascus resembles a barracks" a militant wrote on the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page, decrying the difficulty to take the opposition cause to the streets.

Checkpoints have mushroomed throughout the city. Sandbag walls protect official buildings on the Abbasid Square and in the Qaboun district. Streets that brush too closely to security facilities are closed off.

One resident counted nine checkpoints in the Tijara neighborhood alone.

"Stores close earlier, people go out less at night," said Khaled, a shopkeeper in the Shaalan district. Power in Damascus is cut three hours a day and double that in the suburbs.

Extreme violence did make it into Damascus late in December however when authorities said two suicide blasts against security buildings killed dozens.

On January 6, another blast killed dozens and injured several others.

The violence has reached such levels that the U.S. State Department said Friday it was considering closing its embassy as the death toll mounts in Damascus.

"We have serious concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Damascus, including the recent spate of car bombs, and about the safety and security of embassy personnel," it said in a statement.