The Lede Blog: Student Protest in Syria Unfolds Live Online

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Video of a student protest in Aleppo, Syria, on Thursday, recorded by an activist who uses the nickname Freealep2 on the video-streaming site Bambuser.

Updated, 6:29 p.m. As my colleagues Hwaida Saad and Rick Gladstone report, United Nations observers found themselves in the middle of a large student protest on Thursday, during a visit to Aleppo, in northern Syria.

Although restrictions on reporting inside Syria remain in place, at least two activists managed to broadcast live video of the raucous demonstration to the Web site Bambuser from their phones.

In total, more than an hour of the protest outside the main gate of Aleppo University was streamed live by the two activists. One clip showed that protesters who climbed on top of the school’s imposing front gate even waved the Syrian rebel flag, despite the presence of the security forces.

Video of a demonstration at Aleppo University on Thursday, shot by an activist who uses the nickname Streiker on Bambuser, a video-streaming site.

About halfway through another long clip, filled with chants demanding the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, some protesters could be seen climbing on top of a white U.N. vehicle covered in graffiti. During a pause in the frenzied chanting, a man behind the camera proclaimed the school Syria’s “University of Revolution.”

That same scene was also captured on video posted on YouTube after the demonstration.

Video posted on YouTube by student activists in Syria showed protesters on top of a United Nations vehicle at Aleppo University on Thursday.

According to the Syrian blogger and activist Shakeeb al-Jabri, the students could also be heard during the live stream begging the monitors not to leave, saying that the security forces would assault them as soon as the international observers departed. In response, Mr. Jabri reported on Twitter, one U.N. observer apparently offered to have a word with a security officer at the university.

What we’re getting now is that the monitor who was seen speaking with a security officer was seeking guarantees for the students. #Syria

— Shakeeb Al-Jabri (@LeShaque) 17 May 12

Activists said that force was eventually used to disperse the protest, and video posted online later appears to show protesters being beaten before the eyes of one international observer. A brief clip, apparently recorded from inside one of the U.N. vehicles as the monitors evacuated a wounded student, clearly showed the security forces hitting and kicking protesters amid clouds of tear gas.

Mr. Jabri also explained that viewers of the live stream could make out some of what the activists and U.N. monitors said to each other.

#Aleppo University: (cameraman to UN monitor) “This is the first time we taste freedom in this country, please understand.” #Syria

— Shakeeb Al-Jabri (@LeShaque) 17 May 12

The episode is the second time this week that the presence of U.N. observers appeared to act as a catalyst for protests. When a team of monitors visited the town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, they witnessed an attack on protesters that activists described as a massacre.

Video posted online by activists in Khan Sheikhoun showed the security forces opening fire on the demonstration from close range.

Syrian activists drew attention on Thursday to two video clips that appeared to show one of the U.N. monitors crawling, then being dragged to safety as shots were fired at the protesters in Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday.

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