US pulls out ambassador from Syria

The US State Department said on Monday it pulled its ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, out of the country because of threats to his personal safety.Ford, who had upset Syrian leaders by publicly supporting protesters challenging 41 years of rule by the Assad family, has returned to Washington. During seven months of protests against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Ford has courted the opposition and denounced Assad on Facebook. As the government instituted a deadly crackdown on protests, Ford defied a travel ban on Western diplomats by going to hotspots and meeting with anti-government demonstrators.Along with a group of mostly Western ambassadors, Ford paid condolences to the family of Ghayath Matar, a 25-year-old protest leader who had distributed flowers to give to soldiers but was arrested and died of apparent torture, activists say.Last month pro-government demonstrators threw rocks, concrete blocks and tomatoes at Ford and his aides, as well as attacking their cars with metal bars, during their visit with an opposition figure in Damascus.