Residents in Syria said crowds armed with sticks and knives attacked the Saudi Arabian Embassy compound in Damascus, breaking windows and ransacking some areas within, a report of the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.
They said hundreds of men shouting slogans in support of President Bashar Assad beat a guard and broke into the Saudi Embassy in Abu Rummaneh, three blocks away from Assad’s offices in one of the most heavily policed areas of the capital.
Earlier, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the building and showered it with rocks.
The Kingdom on Sunday condemned the attack.
“The Syrian forces did not carry out the necessary measures to stop” the demonstrators, a foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by SPA.
“The Saudi government strongly condemns this incident and holds the Syrian authorities responsible for the security and protection of all Saudi interests in Syria,” said the unnamed official.
The Kingdom recalled its Syrian ambassador on August 8 and announced the move was in protest over the government’s repression of demonstrators.
Separately, demonstrators protested outside the Qatari Embassy in Damascus and in other cities over the Arab League decision.
Several hundred people gathered outside the embassy, waving Syrian flags and brandishing photos of President Bashar Assad, chanting slogans in support of him.
Some of them forced open the gate and made their way to the top of the building, where they removed the Qatari flag and put up a Syrian one, as embassy security personnel fired tear gas.
Also Saturday evening, a crowd of around a thousand attacked the Turkish Embassy in Damascus, throwing stones and bottles before Syrian police intervened to break up the protest, Turkey’s state-run Anatolian news agency said on Sunday.
Attacks were also staged against Turkey’s consulate in Aleppo and its honorary consulate in Latakia, the agency reported Turkish embassy officials in Damascus as saying.
Arab League foreign ministers voted on Saturday to suspend Syria over its failure to comply with an agreement to end the crackdown, which the United Nations says has cost more than 3,500 lives.
Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani presided over the meeting and announced its decision. On October 30, he had pressed Assad to adopt concrete measures to put an end to the violence.
