This is not the first time that Ford has been attacked in Syria. U.S. ambassador to Syria attacked

Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, was pelted with tomatoes by supporters of President Bashar Assad as he arrived at an office in Damascas for a meeting with a Syrian opposition leader Thursday.

Assad supporters tried to storm the office, breaking some door locks, reports the AP. Office staff prevented them from rushing in.


About 100 pro-Assad protesters demonstrated outside as Ford met with Hassan Abdul-Azim, a leading Syrian opposition figure.

Azim was the first to tell the press about the incident, and said that Syrian security forces arrived about an hour after Thursday’s attack began. But Ford was stuck in the building for three hours before he could leave safely, the AP reported.

The State Department confirmed the incident and noted that embassy vehicles were seriously damaged.

“A crowd of demonstrators tried to assault Ambassador Ford and Embassy colleagues today as they went about doing the normal work of any embassy… The mob was violent; it tried, unsuccessfully, to attack Embassy personnel while they were inside several embassy vehicles, seriously damaging the vehicles in the process,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner in a statement Thursday. “Syrian security officers finally assisted in securing a path from the Ambassador’s meeting for him and his aides back to the Embassy.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed in Thursday afternoon, demanding that the Syrian government fulfill its obligations to protect foreign diplomats.

“We condemn this unwarranted attack in the strongest possible terms. Ambassador Ford and his aides were conducting normal embassy business and this attempt to intimidate our diplomats through violence is wholly unjustified,” Clinton said. “We immediately raised this incident with the Syrian government and we are demanding that they take every possible step to protect our diplomats according to their obligations under international law.”

This is not the first time that Ford has been attacked in Syria. The ambassador was harassed by pro-Assad protestors in late August after he raised the ire of Syrian authorities by taking a surprise trip to the city of Jassem, which has been a flashpoint for anti-government protests.

The Syrian government reacted by delivering a diplomatic note of protest to the United States, contending that Ford had not been authorized to travel there. The Assad regime also encouraged its supporters to throw rocks and eggs at the U.S. embassy.

Tensions between the U.S. and Syria have escalated in recent months. Ford’s provocative trip to Jassem, the second such trip to areas that have been centers of protest against the Syrian government, comes in the context of increasingly aggressive calls from the U.S. that Assad step down.

“His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people,” President Obama said in August. “For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.”