*Syria About To Fall: BooFreakingHoo*

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,


1. Assad's family try to make a mad dash for the airport, yup, they get turned away with automatic weapons.
2. Won't be long till there is a new form of dictatorship in Syria, then we can all have a huge party and celebrate!
3. But having a new dictator, in Syria, do we really give a *Royal Shit*?
4. LINK:'Assad's family attempts to escape Syria' - JPost - Middle East


"The sources told Al-Masry-Al-Youm that "a convoy of official vehicles was seen heading to the airport in Damascus," before they were intercepted by brigades of army defectors.

According to the source, there was a heavy exchange of fire between the security forces and the Free Syrian Army forces; the family were prevented from escaping and returned to the presidential palace."



Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

 

[waltky]

UN to vote on asking Assad to step down...

U.N. to consider call for al-Assad to step down
Mon January 30, 2012 : Monday's death toll reaches 100, an opposition group says; Syria's Interior Ministry says security forces are conducting operations against terrorists; Clinton calls on the U.N. Security Council to show Syrians "we stand with you"; Six members of the army were killed Monday, Syria says

The U.N. Security Council this week will take up a draft resolution that calls on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down and transfer power. "It is primarily a straightforward condemnation of what has transpired, a call upon the government of Syria to adhere to the commitments it made," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters about the draft. She noted that it contains no sanctions or threat of the use of force. The proposal comes after the Arab League suspended a mission to monitor whether al-Assad was abiding by an agreement to end a crackdown that has left thousands of anti-government protesters dead. Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby is scheduled to deliver on Tuesday the monitoring mission's findings to the Security Council.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Monday for the council to "send a clear message of support to the Syrian people: We stand with you." "The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the escalation of the Syrian regime's violent and brutal attacks on its own people," Clinton said in a statement. "In the past few days, we have seen intensified Syrian security operations all around the country, which have killed hundreds of civilians. The government has shelled civilian areas with mortars and tank fire and brought down whole buildings on top of their occupants." She added, "The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region."

Meanwhile, Russia -- one of the five permanent members of the Security Council that have veto power -- said Syrian authorities have agreed to informal talks with opposition representatives. The talks are to be held in Moscow with the goal of resolving the crisis. "We are expecting that the opposition will also give their assent in the next days and put the interests of the Syrian people before any other ideas," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Syrian state media did not immediately confirm the report. The state-run SANA news agency carried two reports quoting Russian officials rejecting foreign interference. One cited a Russian official as complaining that "the opposition and those supporting it in the west and Arab world" are refusing to engage in dialogue.

One of the Syrian reports also cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as calling on the U.N. Security Council "to study in detail the report of the Arab League Observer Mission on Syria" before discussing the draft resolution the Arab League has presented to the Security Council. The draft resolution calls for al-Assad to step down and supports "full implementation" of the Arab League recommendations on Syria. That would include calling on Syria to form a unity government within two months. Monday's developments came amid continued heavy fighting between Syrian forces and the rebel Free Syria Army in suburbs of the capital city of Damascus, where Syrian forces have been battling to take back neighborhoods in Saqba and Maleiha, according to opposition groups.

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[2012]

Current Assad [Alawite apartheid regime is] The only ally, the Islamic Fascist Republic of Iran [ith its Hezbollah thugs] has left in the region.

 

[waltky]

Well, dat didn't work - what'll we do now?...

Russia, China veto UN resolution on Syria
Sat Feb 4,`12 – Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at ending Syria's bloodshed, despite international outrage Saturday over a devastating bombardment of the city of Homs by President Bashar Assad's forces. Activists said more than 200 were killed in the bloodiest episode of the nearly 11-month uprising.

The veto and the show of support by Russia raised concerns that Assad's regime could now unleash even greater violence to crush the revolt against his rule, assured that his ally would prevent international action while continuing its weapons sales to Damascus. It could also push an opposition despairing of other options further into an armed response, fueling a cycle of violence that threatens to tear apart the Arab nation. A movement that began with peaceful protests in March has already turned increasingly to the weapons of rebel soldiers to defend itself against Assad's crackdown. The overnight onslaught on restive neighborhoods in Homs, Syria's third largest city, signaled a willingness by Assad's regime to bring a new level of violence to stamp out its opponents. Its timing, hours before a planned vote on the U.N. resolution, suggested Assad was confident of his ally Russia's protection on the world stage.

Activists' reports of the death toll from the assault could not be independently confirmed. The Syrian government denied any bombardment took place at all, saying the reports were opposition propaganda aimed at pressuring the United Nations. It said bodies of the dead that appeared in activists' online videos were those of people who had been kidnapped previously by "terrorists." Residents of Homs on Saturday described a night of relentless bombardment by mortars and rockets that lasted until dawn, sending them fleeing to lower floors and basements. When daylight came, dozens of buildings were left punctured by shells, facades collapsed, and some streets were stained with blood.

Thousands gathered for a funeral ceremony for some of the victims in the worst hit neighborhood, Khaldiyeh, where more than 60 coffins and bodies in white shrouds were lined up in a park, according to footage of the scene. "A few more nights like this one and Homs will be erased from the map," Ammar, a resident, said, speaking on condition that only his first name be used for fear he and his family could be targeted. "We are being massacred." The bloodshed added new urgency to negotiations over the resolution, as Western and Arab nations amended drafts to overcome Russia's opposition. "The Assad regime must come to an end," President Barack Obama said in a statement Saturday before the vote, calling on the Security Council to "stand against the Assad regime's relentless brutality."

Early drafts demanded Assad carry out an Arab League peace plan by which he would hand over his powers to his vice president and allow formation of a unity government. That was amended to an expression of support of the plan without detailing its provisions. Also added were calls for "all armed groups" — a reference to army defectors — to stop violence. But Russia demanded further changes, saying the draft did not make enough demands on the armed opposition in Syria and that calls for Assad to step aside could wreck chances for a negotiated solution to the country's upheaval. In the end, the resolution's proponents pushed ahead with a vote, challenging Moscow to veto or back down. After the double veto, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said her country was "disgusted" by the vote.

More Russia, China veto UN resolution on Syria - Yahoo! News

See also:

Syria: After U.N. vote fails, now what?
February 4, 2012 - President Barack Obama issued a remarkably strong statement Saturday condemning the Syrian regime's "unspeakable assault" against its own people, following Friday's attack by Syrian artillery on the city of Homs, which killed 200 people and wounded hundreds of others.

The offensive appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said Saturday. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a government crackdown on civilian protests. The Syrian government denied reports of Friday's massacre, with Syrian TV charging incitement by "armed groups."

"Thirty years after his father massacred tens of thousands of innocent Syrian men, women, and children in Hama, Bashar al-Assad has demonstrated a similar disdain for human life and dignity," Mr. Obama said in a statement released by the White House today. "Yesterday the Syrian government murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children, in Homs through shelling and other indiscriminate violence, and Syrian forces continue to prevent hundreds of injured civilians from seeking medical help. . . . "I strongly condemn the Syrian government's unspeakable assault against the people of Homs and I offer my deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones. Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately."

Following yesterday's peaceful demonstrations in Syria marking the 30th anniversary of the Hama massacre, President Obama said, "We owe it to the victims of Hama and Homs to learn one lesson: that cruelty must be confronted for the sake of justice and human dignity. "Every government has the responsibility to protect its citizens, and any government that brutalizes and massacres its people does not deserve to govern. The Syrian regime's policy of maintaining power by terrorizing its people only indicates its inherent weakness and inevitable collapse. Assad has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community."

The president said the international community must work to protect the Syrian people from this "abhorrent brutality," and envisioned "a Syria without Assad" in which all Syrians, including minorities, are subject to and protected by the rule of law. "The United States and our international partners support the Syrian people in achieving their aspirations and will continue to assist the Syrian people toward that goal," Mr. Obama said. "We will help because we stand for principles that include universal rights for all people and just political and economic reform. The suffering citizens of Syria must know: we are with you, and the Assad regime must come to an end." With the U.S. having ruled out military intervention, and the U.N. Security Council failing to approve a resolution seeking Assad's ouster, the enforcement mechanism - beyond sanctions - is now up in the air.

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[waltky]

US closes embassy in Syria capital...

US closes Syrian embassy as diplomacy collapses
6 Feb.`12 – The U.S. closed its Syrian embassy and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus Monday in a dramatic new Western push to get President Bashar Assad to leave power as diplomatic efforts to resolve one of the deadliest conflicts of the Arab Spring collapsed.

The moves by the U.S. and Britain were a clear message that Western powers no longer see the point of engaging with Assad as they turn their attention to bolstering Syria's disparate and largely disorganized opposition to form a credible alternative to the current government. "This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers as he recalled his country's ambassador from Syria for consultations on the escalating violence in the country. "There is no way it can recover its credibility internationally," Hague said.

President Barack Obama said the Syrian leader's departure is only a matter of time, even as the Damascus regime intensified its assault on a revolt that has raged for nearly 11 months. "The deteriorating security situation that led to the suspension of our diplomatic operations makes clear once more the dangerous path Assad has chosen and the regime's inability to fully control Syria," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

Robert Ford, the American ambassador, and 17 other U.S. officials left Syria and were expected to travel back to the United States. Ford informed Syrian authorities of the decision to leave earlier in the day, State Department officials said. Even as the U.S. stepped up pressure on Assad to quit, Obama said a negotiated solution in Syria is possible and it should not be resolved by foreign military intervention. There are fears that international intervention, akin to the NATO intervention that helped topple Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, could make the already combustible conflict in Syria even worse.

Syria is a highly unpredictable country, in part because of its web of allegiances to powerful forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah and close ally Iran. The country also has multiple sectarian divisions, which the uprising has laid bare. Most of Syria's 22 million people are Sunni Muslim, but Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect — something that has bred seething resentments. The most serious violence Monday was reported in Homs, a city so battered that some opposition members have started calling it "the capital of the Syrian revolution." Several neighborhoods in the city, such as Baba Amr, are under the control of rebels.

More US closes Syrian embassy as diplomacy collapses - Yahoo! News

See also:

World seeks next step on Syria as deaths mount
February 6, 2012 -- Hague calls Syria a "doomed" and "murdering regime"; U.N. secretary-general: The Security Council did not give Syria license to step up attacks; Arab League secretary-general slams Syria's "obvious breach" of humanitarian law; The opposition reports 74 deaths; Syria reports innocents "martyred" by "terrorists"

Intense blasts that echoed through the Syrian city of Homs on Monday were just a part of the latest violence ravaging parts of the country, as world leaders sought a new strategy to end the deadly fighting. At least 74 civilians were killed Monday across Syria, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition group that organizes and documents anti-government protests. Most of the deaths occurred in Homs, it said.

The violence came two days after China and Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would have demanded President Bashar al-Assad stop the violence and seek a solution to the 11-month crisis. "They chose to side with the Syrian regime and implicitly to leave the door open to further abuses," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons on Monday. "Such vetoes are a betrayal of the Syrian people. In deploying them, they have let down the Arab League; they have increased the likelihood of what they wish to avoid in Syria -- civil war -- and they have placed themselves on the wrong side of Arab and international opinion."

Chinese and Russian representatives said they want the violence to end and to see dialogue among Syria's opposition factions. "The Syrian regime may have drawn comfort from events at the U.N. Security Council, but we will do everything that we can to make sure that comfort is short-lived," Hague vowed. "This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime. There is no way it can recover its credibility internationally or with its own people." The United States closed its embassy in Syria and pulled out remaining staff after the Syrian government refused to address its security concerns, the State Department said. Hague said his country called its ambassador home for consultations. He demanded that Syria protect the British Embassy in Damascus.

Britain also called Syria's ambassador for a meeting at the foreign office. Hague vowed that Britain and other countries will remain focused on pressuring Syria on numerous fronts, "undeterred by Saturday's vote." Opposition activists in Syria said the Syrian regime stepped up its brutal crackdown over the weekend after the Security Council failed to pass the resolution, leaving hundreds dead. "It is horrible. Especially today, it is horrible," said Abu Omar, a local activist who said the Syrian army was attacking without warning. "Usually, they are using mortars. They are now using rockets in the sky. We can see them in the sky." Four children and four women were among the dead Monday, the Local Coordination Committees said. According to the group's statement, 47 of those killed were in Homs, 12 in Damascus Suburbs province, 9 in Idlib, 3 in Damascus, 2 in Aleppo and 1 in Hama province.

More World seeks next step on Syria as deaths mount - CNN.com

 

[waltky]

Syria to explode into World War III?...

Syria and the seeds of world war
Wednesday 8th February, 2012 : The Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution paving the way for intervention in Syria has provoked a furious reaction from the United States and its imperialist allies.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations and a leading representative of the “human rights” warriors demanding universal acquiescence to the schemes of US imperialism, branded the veto envoys as “shameful and disgusting” and threatened that “over time it is a decision they will come to regret.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote a “travesty” that had “neutered” the UN. France, not to be outdone in the pursuit of imperialist aims in a country over which it exercised a quarter-century colonial mandate, responded with similar belligerence. Foreign Minister Alan Juppe declared the double veto a “moral stain” on the United Nations, and Defense Minister Gerard Longuet described Russia and China as countries that “deserve a kick in the ass.”

No such expressions of concern about the “neutering” of the UN or “moral stains” were heard when the US delegation repeatedly vetoed resolutions denouncing aggression by its principal ally in the region, Israel, as it waged wars against defenseless populations in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, killing thousands of civilians. Morality and human rights have nothing to do with it. The outrage heard from Washington and the capitals in Western Europe is over the failure of Moscow and Beijing to line up behind US imperialism’s strategy for re-organizing the world in its own interest and that of the financial elite.

The supposed “principles” underlying the US initiative—that the major imperialist powers have the right to intervene and depose the governments of former colonial countries they deem guilty of violating human rights—stand in complete contradiction to international law. As in everything else, the American financial aristocracy makes up the rules as it goes along. The reasoning of the Russian and the Chinese governments is fairly straight-forward. They see the US posturing once again as the champion of democracy and human rights as it carries out a relentless campaign of aggression aimed at transforming Iran and Syria—both key trading and strategic partners with Moscow and Beijing—into neo-colonial puppet states of American imperialism.

At stake for Russia is the loss of its one remaining ally in the Arab world, together with billions of dollars in arms contracts, access for its navy to its sole port on the Mediterranean and tens of billions of dollars more in investments. China has similar, though lesser interests in Syria. Both countries recognize, however, that Syria has been targeted for regime change as part of a larger campaign aimed at toppling the government of Iran—China’s key energy supplier—and bringing the entire oil-rich and strategically vital region stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Basin firmly under US hegemony.

More Syria and the seeds of world war

See also:

EU threatens new sanctions on Syria
February 08, 2012 | The European Union will impose harsher sanctions on Syria, a senior EU official said Wednesday, as Russia tried to broker talks between the vice president and the opposition to calm violence. Activists reported at least 50 killed in military assaults targeting government opponents.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who held emergency talks in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday, is trying to end Syria's 11-month-old bloody uprising, which has left more than 5,400 dead, according to the U.N. Moscow launched the initiative on Tuesday, just days after it infuriated the U.S. by blocking a Western- and Arab-backed U.N. Security Council resolution supporting calls for Assad to hand over some powers to his vice president. Russia's approach does not call for Assad to step down, the opposition's chief demand, and Moscow is increasingly at odds with the Western efforts to end Assad's crackdown.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said outside forces should let Syrians settle their conflict "independently." "We should not act like a bull in a china shop," Putin was quoted by the Itar Tass news agency as saying. "We have to give people a chance to make decisions about their destiny independently, to help, to give advice, to put limits somewhere so that the opposing sides would not have a chance to use arms, but not to interfere.

Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that Assad has "delegated the responsibility of holding such a dialogue to Vice President (Farouk) al-Sharaa." He blamed both Assad's regime and opposition forces for instigating the violence that has killed thousands of people since March. "On both sides, there are people that aim at an armed confrontation, not a dialogue," Lavrov said. Military defectors are playing a bigger role in Syria's Arab-Spring inspired uprising, turning it into a more militarized conflict and hurtling the country ever more quickly toward a civil war.

The regime's crackdown on dissent has left it almost completely isolated internationally and facing growing sanctions. The U.S. closed its embassy in Damascus on Monday and five European countries and six Arab Gulf nations have pulled their ambassadors out of Damascus over the past two days. Germany, whose envoy left Syria this month, said he would not be replaced. Nevertheless, Assad was bolstered by Tuesday's visit from Lavrov and Russia's intelligence chief, Mikhail Fradkov. During the talks, the Russians pushed for a solution that would include reforms by the regime as well as the dialogue with the opposition. Assad said Syria was determined to hold a national dialogue with the opposition and independent figures, and that his government was "ready to cooperate with any effort that boosts stability in Syria," according to state news agency SANA. The Syrian opposition rejects any talks with the regime and says they accept nothing less than Assad's departure.

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[waltky]

Obama keepin' his eye on goin's-on in Syria...

U.S. stepping up Syrian intel gathering
February 10th, 2012 - The United States has recently stepped up intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations over Syria, CNN has learned.

"This is for situational awareness," a senior U.S. official told CNN. "There are media reports but we also want to verify exactly what is happening." The official said the United States believes all the media reports coming out of Syria, but for intelligence uses they want to gather even more information to understand precisely what is happening there. The official would not address whether U.S. intelligence-gathering operations include eavesdropping on or jamming of Syrian government and military communications. Such actions were used in Libya. Under fire from some quarters for not doing more immediately to help stop the bloodshed in Syria, the State Department on Friday said it will release publicly reconnaissance photos of Syrian cities showing broad images of what appeared to be smoke rising from areas where the fighting is most intense.

The first image was posted on the Facebook page of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus. That embassy was closed last week when U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford and his remaining staff were called back to Washington. The images shows "some declassified U.S. national imagery of destruction of Homs, very gruesome pictures showing lines of tanks, showing fire, showing the kind of things that you really only see when you have a major military attacking in a civilian area," explained State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. But the United States is continuing to look for non-violent solutions, Nuland said.

The release of the images followed Russia's charged that opposition groups are mounting an increasingly well-armed resistance against government forces, with weapons supplied by other countries. "We are trying to demonstrate the kind of weaponry the regime is using," a senior State Department official said. "This is military hardware of a very sophisticated nature being used against civilians." The official said the intended audience is "those who might doubt those who are doing the violence because, clearly, these are government weapons," alluding to Russia and China, which have echoed the Syrian regime's argument that much of the violence is being carried out by anti-regime rebels.

Nuland said there photos will be released in coming days on the embassy's site and on a new site created by the State Department. Pictures to be released on that site later Friday include ones showing the cities of Zabadani, Halboun and Rancous, she said. "Our intent here is to, obviously, expose the ruthlessness and the brutality of this regime and its overwhelming predominance of military advantage and the horrible kinds of weaponry that it's deploying against its people," she said.

Source

See also:

U.S. sees "fear and foreboding" in Syria
February 10th, 2012 - Syria's government is becoming "more and more isolated," as the world watches the violence within its borders, the U.S. ambassador to Syria told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday.

There is a palpable sense of "fear and foreboding" across Syria as the regime of President Bashar al-Assad continues its assault on the country, Ambassador Robert Ford said. Ford, who evacuated Syria earlier this week with the remainder of the American staff amid security concerns, spoke from Paris in an interview that aired on CNN's "Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." "It's horrific, it's repulsive," Ford said of reports hundreds of people have been killed in Syria's third largest city, Homs, this past week. In addition to the carnage playing out across Syria, Ford said, the Syrian people are also suffering from a rapidly contracting Syrian economy. With factories and businesses closing, people are losing their livelihoods as the price of food skyrockets, fuel supplies run scarce, and many cities and towns across the country experience extended periods of no electricity.

With no U.S. presence inside Syria in the wake of the embassy closure, Ford posted an unclassified satellite photo on the embassy's Facebook page purporting to show the regime's military assault on Homs. "We know who is shelling Homs and it is not the armed groups, it's the government, and that's why I wanted that picture" posted online, he said. Ford said the opposition in Syria has rifles and machine guns, but it is only the government that has artillery, which can be seen in the photo being deployed within Homs. Syrian government assertions that an armed opposition is shelling Homs are "completely disingenuous" he said. "It's absolutely horrifying and the international community cannot stay silent about this."

Asked if he saw parallels in Homs to the 1982 assault on the Syrian city of Hama in which tens of thousands were killed, Ford said the current situation "bears a lot of resemblance." In a meeting with Syrian government officials last April, Ford said he told officials a large-scale assault like that in Hama could not happen now, with the world bearing witness through the Internet and other communications. "The world can see what the Syrian government is doing, and the Syrian government, as a result, is growing more and more isolated," Ford said. Going forward, he said, the United States will work with its allies to increase pressure on the regime through the existing sanctions and, possibly new ones. The United States will also work with the opposition in Syria to impress on them the need to "step up and do a better job at chipping away" at Assad's remaining support inside Syria. The opposition needs to "reassure Syrians that they have a way forward that will provide a better Syria for all of the Syrian people," he said.

With an estimated 65,000 Syrians having been driven from their homes, leaving many without any shelter or money, Ford said the United States stands ready to work with the international community to find ways to provide assistance on the emerging humanitarian problem. Evacuating the embassy was necessary when the Syrian government did not address the added security concerns the United States had for the embassy and its staff, he said. "It's a very hard thing to say farewell to loyal and dedicated Syrian employees of the American Embassy, and it was absolutely wrenching to take down the American flag" at the embassy and leave, he said. Ford will return to the United States to direct embassy functions from Washington. Poland will serve as the 'protecting power' of American interests in Syria in the absence of a functioning American embassy.

Source

 

[waltky]

Syria may soon not be able to rely on Russia...

Russia signals possible shift on Syria
Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Russia, which has vetoed previous U.N. resolutions condemning violence in Syria, signaled Monday it may shift its stand amid fresh violence.

Russia is prepared to promote dialogue and a "regional security agreement" between gulf countries and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. But CNN reported it remained uncertain whether Lavrov 's comment indicated Russia would support the resolution Monday. The comment came after Lavrov met with the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister, who had attended an Arab League meeting Sunday in Cairo. The league is calling for a joint peacekeeping mission with the United Nations to oversee a cease-fire and has urged member states to cut ties to Syria and give political and financial support to the opposition in the country.

Syrian Ambassador to the Arab League Yousef Ahmad said his regime was "not interested" in any league resolution decided in its absence. The league suspended Syria's membership in November. Meanwhile, CNN reported renewed violence in Syria, where the Local Coordinating Committees, a network of opposition activists, reported more than 680 people died last week and more than 7,000 since the uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad began 11 months ago. CNN reported Monday the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group, said tanks, armed personnel carriers and military trucks entered Idlib in northwest Syria, where four people were reported killed by gunfire from Syrian security forces.

In the restive city of Homs, two civilians were killed in shelling, and three soldiers were killed elsewhere in the Homs province after a failed army attempt to storm the town, the Observatory said. Arab League ministers discussed a U.N.-Arab force of 3,000 observers, pan-Arab TV network al-Jazeera reported -- far larger than 200 or so observers in the league mission that was suspended last month. The United Nations has historically deployed armed peacekeepers only with the host country's consent and when it believes there is peace to keep, al-Jazeera and The New York Times said.

Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi, the controversial Sudanese general who led the earlier league mission, resigned from that post Sunday, contending he performed his role "with full integrity and transparency" but alleging the situation was skewed. He was accused by opposition activists of bias toward the regime. League Secretary-General Nabil al-Araby recommended appointing former Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib, who was named U.N. special envoy to Libya last year, as Dabi's replacement.

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[Baruch Menachem]

As long as the army is more afraid of him than they are of the population he can hang on. But I can see some of the upper levels of the army going screw this and changing sides.

 

[Ropey]

Shia/Sunni Tribal fights. They say things like "He's killing his own people", but to him, no he's not. Different tribes and beliefs.

Tribal warfare is the name of this Arab Spring.

 

[JStone]

Excellent. Next, deport the muslime scum and repopulate syria with good Christians like in Biblical times before that thug and pedophile muhammad rolled