Syrian forces beat up political cartoonist Ali Ferzat

Syrian forces beat up a prominent Syrian political cartoonist and left him bleeding on the side of a road, in the latest episode of a campaign to quash dissent against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Ali Ferzat, 60, is one of the Arab world's most famous cultural figures, and his drawings have pushed at the boundaries of freedom of expression in Syria.

The attack on Ferzat came as the Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for a dialogue between Assad and the opposition to bring a peaceful end to the protests.

Working from a gallery in central Damascus, Ferzat has long criticised the bureaucracy and corruption of the Syrian and other Arab regimes – earning him a death threat from former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Since March he has turned to depicting the uprising.

Last week, in the early hours of Thursday morning, masked men seized Ferzat from the street and forced him in to a van. A relative has said that Ferzat's attackers targeted his hands, breaking them both, and told him it was "just a warning" before leaving him by the roadside with a bag over his head.

Assad has shrugged off international condemnation and continues to use security forces and thugs to kill and arrest his opponents. Arrests and raids continued across the country on Thursday with at least five people shot dead across the country and tanks sent into al-Boukamal on the Iraqi border, activists said.

More at the Guardian.