Syria's Assad Has 'Lost Legitimacy' For US

The US has said Syrian leader Bashar al Assad has lost legitimacy to rule after his supporters attack the US embassy in Damascus.

President al Assad was "not indispensable," US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said as tensions soared over an assault by regime loyalists on the American and French embassies in Damascus.

Clinton condemned the attacks and said Washington did not believe the long-time Syrian ruler would follow through on his promises to reform in the face of escalating protests against his rule.

"From our perspective, he has lost legitimacy, he has failed to deliver on the promises he's made, he has sought and accepted aid from the Iranians as to how to repress his own people," Mrs Clinton said.

Her comments marked a significant sharpening of US rhetoric on Mr Assad, whose security forces have waged an increasingly brutal crackdown against protesters inspired by pro-democracy movements elsewhere in the Arab world.

Several Assad loyalists broke into the US embassy in Damascus on Monday and security guards used live ammunition to prevent hundreds from storming the French embassy, diplomats said.

They said the attackers tore down embassy plaques and tried to break security glass in protests fuelled by the government against a visit by US and French ambassadors to the city of Hama, focus of protests against Assad's rule.

"Four buses full of shabbiha (Alawite militia loyal to Assad) came from Tartous. They used a battering ram to try to break into the main door," a resident of Afif, the old district where the US embassy is located told Reuters.

A Western diplomat in the Syrian capital said: "This is a violent escalation by the regime. You do not bring busloads of thugs into central Damascus from the coast without its consent."

A French foreign ministry official said Syria 's authorities had done nothing to stop the assault, and the US said it would seek compensation for damage.

"(France) reminds (Syria) that it is not with such illegal methods that the authorities in Damascus will turn the attention away from the fundamental problem, which is to stop the repression of the Syrian population and to launch democratic reform," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/syrias-assad-lost-legitimacy-us-013919270.html

Corey Feldman Renee Zellweger Brett Michaels Sarah Palin is a Moron