Syrian Troops Escalate Bloody Crackdown in Homs

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

The Syrian government has launched a bloody assault to retake Homs, the country’s third-largest city, ignoring the relatively muted protests of the international community and facing armed defectors who have so far prevented the government’s forces from seizing it as they did other restive locales this summer.

The specter of civil war has long hung over Homs, the most tenacious and determined of cities opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule. But this month, parts of the city have become an urban battlefield, with activists saying government forces have killed 111 people in just five days, opposition groups warning of dire shortages created by the siege and residents complaining of lawlessness by marauding soldiers and paramilitaries.

The strife there comes amid the apparent collapse of mediation by the Arab League, more signs of the government’s intention to stanch dissent by force and the emergence of Homs as a sign to Syrians of the relative success of fighting back against a military force that, while still unified, has suffered ever more defections as the fighting persists.

“Homs is a turning point for now,” said a Damascus-based analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “It’s a successful model of self-defense, if you will, at a time when you really can’t expect people to take anymore. They’ve seen too many corpses come back, too many people arrested, disappeared or returned after abominable treatment. It’s too much. And everybody seems to be losing control of the street.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/world/africa/syrian-city-of-homs-suffers-bloody-assault.html?pagewanted=all

[tabatha]

1. Disgusting.

Assad is repeating what his father did - massacre 10,000 in one town.

[TheMadMonk]

2. Ah still working on tinpot dictator. You don't get to claim statesman...

...status till you kill a million. :sarcasm: