Syria updateSpiraling violence and Assad's desperate tactics
The conflict in Syria between anti-government protesters and the Basher al Assad regime escalates; two signs of escalation: the Saudi and Jordanian covert support of the anti-Assad forces is beginning to tell, and the regime, growing ever more desperate, is targeting children for torture and death and busing hundreds of Palestinians living in Syria to the border with Israel as a diversion; the Palestinian issue is a potent issue, and exploiting it for diversion may appear as clever ploy by a desperate ruler; it is not likely to work, though: If Israel manages to keep the level of violence low, and if it finds better — non-lethal — means to deal with repeated attempts of Palestinians from Syria to breach the border, then whatever happens along the border would just not be powerful enough — in terms of TV footage, drama, and the number of people killed or wounded — to offset to growing brutality inside Syria
Protestors show no sign of baking down // Source: newsone.com
The conflict in Syria between anti-government protesters and the Basher al Assad regime escalates. Two signs of escalation: the Saudi and Jordanian covert support of the anti-Assad forces is beginning to tell, and the regime, growing ever more desperate, is targeting children for torture and death and busing hundreds of Palestinians living in Syria to the border with Israel as a diversion. Here is the latest, based on reports in Fox News Fox News, the BBC, and the New York Times.
- The number of civilians killed by government forces now exceeds 1,200, with more than 10,000 detained or made to “disappear.”
- The number of security forces being killed by armed anti-government elements has now about 250.
- The latest – and bloodiest – attack by anti-government groups on Syria’s security forces took place on Monday, when coordinated attacks on security forces convoys and installation killed about 120. The clash occurred in northwest Syria, in a city called Jisr al-Shughour, located about twelve miles south of the Turkish border.
- Initial government reports said twenty police were killed in an ambush by “armed gangs.” The anti-government forces used light weapons, grenades, and stolen explosives. They ambushed police as they approached the town early on Monday, killing twenty of the officers.
- Another thirty-seven security officials were killed in an attack on the town’s security center and eight in a bomb attack on a post office, while the bloodiest incident occurred when gunmen took over the security services’ headquarters, the government report added.
- The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says if official reports are correct, it would be the first time officials have admitted to such a large loss of personnel.
- Jisr al-Shughour was a stronghold of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s. In 1980, the Hafez al Assad’s (Basher’s father) government bombarded the city in order to suppress a Muslim Brotherhood rebellion, killing seventy people (two years later, in February 1982, the government, for three weeks, used heavy artillery to bombard the city of Hama in order to crush a Muslim Brotherhood rebellion; that campaign killed between 20,000 and 40,000 people). Since Saturday, at least forty-two civilians have been killed there.
- During the past weekend, more than sixty civilians were killed by the security forces in different towns in Syria.
Children targeted
The UN children agency UNICEF has publicly called on the Syrian government to stop arresting and
