Gunmen break cartoonist’s hands over mocking Assad

MASKED gunmen dragged Syria’s best-known political cartoonist from his car, beat him severely and broke both his hands as a warning to stop drawing just days after he compared Syria’s president to Muammar Gaddafi, a relative and activists said.

Hospitalised with serious injuries, 60-year-old Ali Ferzat has become the most famous victim of the repression of Syria’s five-month uprising. The attack was a reminder that no Syrian is immune to the crackdown.

“This is just a warning,” the gunmen told Ferzat, according to a relative who asked that her name not be used for fear of reprisals. “We will break your hands so you’ll stop drawing.”