Birds break the silence, and occasionally, there is the whistle of a police officer, or the sound of gunfire to scatter an assembling crowd.
Film footage captured screams and the sounds of gunfire as crowds scattered.
Scattered gunfire near the school erupted into a street battle as the two sides also fought for control of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Saba News building and the headquarters of the national airline, Yemenia, which was soon in flames.
The conflict which brought rebels to the capital, in an effort to overthrow the government of Idriss Déby, is an extension of long-running violence in neighbouring Sudan.By Tuesday February 5th the rebels and government soldiers had, apparently, called a halt to the fighting, with only scattered gunfire reported in the city.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hundreds and hundreds of antigovernment protesters braved scattered gunfire from Syrian soldiers to march through a middle-class neighborhood in Damascus on Saturday, the biggest demonstration witnessed close to the heart of the capital since the country's uprising started 11 months ago.
As my colleague Neil MacFarquhar reports, "antigovernment protesters braved scattered gunfire from Syrian soldiers to march through a middle-class neighborhood in Damascus on Saturday, the biggest demonstration witnessed close to the heart of the capital since the country's uprising started 11 months ago".
As the strikers approached, they heard gunfire and turned and scattered.
Videos uploaded to the Internet at the time showed throngs of defenseless men, women, and children, many of them waving olive branches, scattered by gunfire.
In the second clip, what sounds like a heavy burst of gunfire rings out, scattering protesters, but only for a few seconds.
Some complained that the gunmen were holding the camp hostage, but when several hundred gathered to shout protests, militants scattered them with gunfire.
