CAIRO, February 4, 2012 (AFP)
Dozens of Syrian dissidents stormed their country’s embassy in Cairo on Saturday, ransacking the mission and setting fire to its ground floor, an embassy worker said.
About 50 protesters, mostly Syrians, tore down the gate to the embassy, located in the upscale Garden City neighbourhood, before bursting inside the building at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT), the employee told AFP.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said that the embassy’s walls were charred and broken glass littered the ground, along with damaged furniture and computers.
Egyptian police were deployed around the mission by daylight.
Opponents of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad had attacked the mission last week, but were repelled by police.
They have set up a large tent in front of the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, demanding Assad’s ouster.
The attack on the embassy came as the opposition Syrian National Council called on the world to act after what it called “horrific massacres” on Saturday in the city of Homs that it said killed at least 260 civilians.
The Syrian government denied the report, blaming the bloodshed on “armed gunmen,” state media reported.
