It was just days ago that the Syrian military was withdrawn from the major city of Hama, sparking public celebrations and a record turnout for the Friday demonstrations in the city, which were said to number in the hundreds of thousands.

The Assad regime followed this up by sacking the governor, Ahmad Khaled Abdel Aziz, and now the Syrian military, compklete with tanks, are back out in force both in the center and the outskirts of Hama.

This is likely a response to the mass jubilation in the city and the massive size of the protests, but since the violent crackdowns by the military have not slowed the protests either it is unclear what they hope to accomplish.

The protests in Syria began months ago in the southern town of Daraa. Though initially numbering only a few hundred people, each attempt at a crackdown grew the protests significantly and now the Friday rallies are regularly of enormous size, and nationwide.

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