DAMASCUS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- In a fresh initiative, hundreds of Syrian youths erected tents atop the Qasioun Mountain in the capital Damascus, determined to be "human shields" against possible U.S. military strike.
"We are university students, who want to protect our country with our bodies," Mohammad Nassouri, a participant, told Xinhua. " We don't have weapons, and are not trained to use weapons."
Yound men and women gather on the mountain to join the unprecedented sit-in, dubbed "Over Our Bodies," dancing and chanting in an upbeat yet resentful mood, as each one of them is ready to "take the first (U.S.) missile with their bear chests."
Ugarit Dandash, one of the organizers, is a girl with Lebanese origin. She started this new idea with 15 people, and nine days later, their number rose to 220.
"We will protect our land with our bodies, for we prefer dying in dignity than living under any occupation," Dandash told Xinhua.
"We call on all the Syrians to join us, because it's our country that is being threatened, not the regime or any specific person," said Dandash.
She further made an appeal to "all the free people in the world, all those who believe that people have the right to decide their own future," to join her campaign.
So far, Dandash has received many phone calls from Arab and Western activists, who expressed desire to take part in the sit-in to express rejection to a U.S. strike.
With the looming of a West's strike to "punish" the Syrian Assad administration, residents in Damascus defiantly said they were not afraid of any possible war launched by the United States and its allies.
Aside from the Qasioun sit-in, Syrians also thronged the popular square of Saba'a Bahrat in Damascus to express discontent and rejection to foreigh military intervention.
"Syria will not kneel to the dictations of the USA," Majd Niazi, a Damascus resident, told Xinhua. "Syria will remain proud."
Another resident, Ola Makkieh, said she joined the sit-in because she wanted to demonstrated that "the Syrian land is united and we reject any foreign intervention in our country."
"We are the Syrians, with all of our sects, reject America's intervention in our land," said Makkieh. "We are one family and neither (U.S. President Barack) Obama nor any other leader can change that."
A new U.S. national survey showed that President Obama was swimming against a strong tide of public opinion that doesn't want the U.S. to get involved in a Syrian civil war.
According to the CNN, more than seven in 10 say such a strike would not achieve significant goals for the U.S. and a similar amount say it's not in the national interest for the U.S. to get involved in Syria's bloody conflict.
Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has hailed the American people for opposing their government's "desire" for war.
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