Syrian cartoonist beaten by pro-regime attackers

Ali Ferzat, probably the most admired cartoonist in the Arab world, was grabbed by unidentified gunmen early in the morning in the Ommayad Square in central Damascus, bundled into a car and driven away, said the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), which organises protests against the regime of Bashar Assad, the Syrian President.

Wounded Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat rests in bed at his residence in Damascus after being beaten by pro-regime gunmen/ Photo credit: AFP

"The attackers stole the contents of his briefcase, including his drawings and other personal belongings," said Omar Idlibi of the LCC.

"He was beaten hard, notably in the hands. Passers-by found him on the road to the airport and he was taken to hospital."

Other reports said that Mr Ferzat was told that he would be killed if he persisted with his criticism of the Assad regime.

Pictures of Mr Ferzat lying in a hospital bed were later posted on Facebook. His eyes were closed and bruised and bloodstained bandages were wrapped around his hands. His website www.ali-ferzat.com was down.

Syrian opposition sources said that the assailants were supporters of the Assad regime and he was beaten because of his published cartoons that have been deeply critical of the harsh suppression of the five-month uprising in Syria.

One of his last cartoons showed Mr Assad hitchhiking with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the recently toppled leader of Libya. He has used Twitter to mock the regime as it blamed the uprising on "foreign conspiracies".

Mr Ferzat is no stranger to confrontation with the Syrian authorities. As a child he was in trouble at school for drawing cartoons of his teachers on the classroom walls.

With his sharp, wry sense of humour, Mr Ferzat has had his satirical cartoons published in the region's newspapers and around the world. In 1994, he was voted one of the world's top five humanitarian-themed cartoonists.

In February 2001, he launched Ad Domari, the first weekly satirical newspaper allowed to be published in Syria since the ruling Baath Party seized power in 1963.

Its articles poking fun at the regime and highlighting the state's shortcomings and acts of corruption struck a chord with the Syrian public and it became an instant success.

Syria at the time was enjoying a wave of optimism with expectations that Mr Assad, who became President in July 2000, was planning to introduce a sweeping package of reforms to modernise and liberalise the country.

The reforms, however, never came and a vicious crackdown by the regime soon ended hopes of the "Damascus Spring" of 2001.

By May 2002, Mr Ferzat was struggling to keep his newspaper afloat in the face of harassment from the regime.

"It has been very difficult," he said in an interview at the time. "We are paying a heavy price because the people behind all the corruption are not pleased with us.

"They have tried everything to stop us. Sometimes they cut our electricity, or stop the paper supply, or sue us or steal newspaper copies or threaten writers."Ad Domari was forced to close three months later.

Meanwhile, the state-run Sana news agency said that eight soldiers, including an officer, were killed and seven wounded in ambushes on Wednesday by "armed gangs" in the town of Talbisa and Rastan north of Homs in central Syria.

The United Nations says that at least 2,200 people have died since the uprising began in mid-March.

Syria has found itself increasingly isolated as international and regional patience with the escalating violence wears thin.