Retaliation Without End

"The mourners set off with 19 bodies and came back with 35."  
"They were not killed by bombardment, their hands were tied and they were burnt and killed by knives."

This the handiwork, of course, of President Bashar al-Assad's loyal military.  The Shia Alawites of Syria are in general agreement with their president; their opponents must not be allowed to fulfill their pledge to remove the regime from power.  That done, there will result an even greater bloodbath than has ensued to date.  Giving full open rein to the Sunni opposition under the Syrian Free Army to slaughter every Syrian Shi'ite they can find cowering in fear of revenge.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has relayed his country's conclusion after meeting with his Chinese counterpart, to insist yet again that they are both committed to "the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law... and not to allow their violation."  A violation of international law would present should "enormous consequences" ensue under the aegis of the United States, in consequence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ordering an attack of chemical or biological weapons.

The same would apply, according to an address by President Barack Obama, should Syria seek to hand over those stockpiles to unfriendly agents.  Friendly enough to Syria, to Iran, to Hezbollah but a distinct danger in their terrorist convictions to others in the neighbourhood.  Most particularly, Israel.  Chemical or biological weapons in the hands of Hezbollah or Hamas, or perchance, any of the many offshoots of al-Qaeda would most certainly spell disaster.

Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, visiting in Moscow, informed that his government was prepared to discuss the resignation of the president once dialogue begins with the opposition.  Until that happens the government troops and tanks will continue to enter civilian enclaves in Damascus and Aleppo.  Regime forces rained down a torrent of mortars on the Kafar Soussa and Nahr Eishah areas of Damascus, while government troops shelled from Qasioun mountain overlooking the capital.

The attacks may have been designed to kill or capture rebel mortar teams who have used the two neighborhoods in recent days to target the city’s strategically located Mazzeh military airport, activists said.  According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights fierce battles raged outside the neighbourhood of Kagar Soussa, corroborated by an activist there.


Another area activist, speaking through skype, said dozens of tanks stormed the district with foot soldiers right behind.  Regime forces in Nahr Eishah conducted house-to-house raids, searching for rebels.  In Lebanon, sectarian violence revolving around the conflict in Syria has taken the lives of a number of people.  The spread of the violence, unleashing itself in Lebanon appears to be following a script feared by many concerned about a wider fall-out of Syria's conflict.

Iran's Supreme Leader is reported to have ordered the Quds unit of the Revolutionary Guards to increase its attacks against the West in retaliation for advocating the overthrow of President al-Assad's regime, so vital to the interests of the Republic.

Medecins sans frontieres is performing life-saving operations at a secretly constructed hospital close to Aleppo.  Open since June, the medical centre is disguised to look from the outside like a civilian building.  Life as usual continuing in the Middle East.