...attackers tore down U.S. embassy plaques and tried to break security glass in protests fueled by the government against a visit by U.S. and French ambassadors to the city of Hama, "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 Western diplomat in the Syrian capital said: "This is a violent escalation by the regime. You do not bring bus loads of thugs into central Damascus from the coast without its consent."