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GV Street in Aleppo, Syria
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SV & GV PULL BACK AND PAN Historic Aleppo Castle


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GV PAN Aleppo Mosque minaret and courtyards
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GV Courtyard of Mosque
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SV INTERIOR Men praying
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GV Old man walking across courtyard
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GV Hamah streets with cars and pedestrians
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GVs Hamah market (2 shots)
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SV Old man and young man walking down streets
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Initials BB



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In Syria, there has been a massive security clampdown in the city of Hamah following an attempt last month to assassinate the governor of the town. Four people were killed in a gun battle which followed the attempt of the life of Major General Mahmoud Koshaji. The episode was the latest of a wave of sectarian killings directed mainly against the minority Alawite sect, whose members controls most key government posts.

SYNOPSIS: In the historic northern city of Aleppo, about fifty trainee officers died in a hail of bullets on June the sixteenth. All of them were Alawites. Since then, at least another fifty have been killed in the sectarian violence, and members of the Baath government have been given additional bodyguards. Since Hafez al-Assad became Syria's first Alawite President, the sect has blossomed from a backward, under-privileged group to the dominant force which runs the country.

The Government has accused an extremist Moslem organisation, known as the Brotherhood, of mounting a terror campaign inside Syria. The Brotherhood draws most of its support from the Sunni Moslem community.

In the ancient town of Hamah -- scene of the attempted assassination of the Governor -- security has also been tightened. But this has not lessened the fears of the Alevite community, who comprise one eighth. of Syria's population of eight and a half million.