U.S. Ambassador To Syria Responds To Attack By Regime Supporters

After his convoy was attacked by pro-regime protesters in Damascus, U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford used the embassy's page on Facebook to comment on the incident.

Ford said he respects the right of all Syrian to protest peacefully, including those who are pro-regime, but he added that the incident outside opposition leader Hassan Abdul Azim's office "was not peaceful." He wrote:

Look at the photos of the U.S. Embassy vehicles – eggs and tomatoes do not do such damage. Protesters threw concrete blocks at the windows and hit the cars with iron bars. One person jumped on the hood of the car, tried to kick in the windshield and then jumped on the roof. Another person held the roof railing and tried to break the car's side window. When the embassy car moved through the crowd, the man fell off the car. At no time did any embassy vehicle hit any protester in the street. The mob also tried to break through Abdul Azim's office door. Is that peaceful? I'd call it intolerant if not worse.

As we noted yesterday, Ford has been using Facebook to issue statements on the situation in Syria and respond to comments from Syrians on the site about the situation in the country and U.S. foreign policy toward it.

Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.