Life ... Interrupted

 A Free Syrian Army fighter prepares to fire an RPG as a Syrian army tank shell hits a building across a street during heavy fighting in central Aleppo

Fears of Islamists and jihadists infiltrating too deeply into the Syrian National Council created strife among its disparate members.  The Free Syrian Army, itself deeply penetrated by Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood, along with jihadists answering the call from al-Qaeda to support the rebels, have created suspicions in the minds of the international community about aiding the rebel forces.  

The U.S. experienced a "lesson learned" moment once, when it supplied the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan and saw the Frankenstein they helped create dangerously run amok, and second time around when it armed the Libyan rebels only to learn that weapons have since filtered through to North African jihadists.  And that the same Libyan rebels who found war so appealing have re-appeared now in Syria.

The deeply divided opposition, mistrusting one another, reflecting varying tribal allegiances, seemed to have resisted calls for cohesion and the acceptance of a representative leadership that would give confidence to the international community and encourage foreign aid.  In Doha, Qatar, finally it seems that an agreement was reached, with new leadership for the opposition forces against the Alawite regime of President Bashar al-Assad.  Aid from the Arab League and the West could tip the civil war into favouring the rebel forces.

"We have agreed on the broad platform and all (opposition) parties, without any exception, support this initiative", a former Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader who took part in the talks affirmed.  The new leadership is to be called the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces.  Islamic preacher Maath al-Khatib was elected president of the new coalition, with leading opposition figures Riad Seif and Suheir Atassi elected vice-presidents.  The coalition's secretary-general is Mustafa Sabbagh.

The new coalition will include representatives from the largest current opposition group, the Syrian National Council, whom the Free Syrian Army never gave its full trust and support to, considering them representative of Syrians who had lived too long abroad, and who were not involved with the country's fortunes during its more recent years, only returning when the opposition to the minority Shiite regime became a reality.  The SNC has secured 22 of the 60 seats in the new coalition.

All of this may be of little comfort to the ordinary people of Syria, civilians who want only to be left to live in peace and security and whom both the regime's forces and the opposition militias are making life a living hell for.  Food and energy is becoming as scarce as safety and security, compelling people who had up to now hesitated to leave their homes, determine they can no longer hold out on what appears inevitable.  If only to secure food for their families.

As many as 11,000  Syrians fled their homes to flood neighbouring countries in a single day.  A surge in the migration of frantic refugees attempting to escape heavy battles between the opposing forces and the regime for control of towns and cities has strained the capacity of Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan to receive them.  The number of Syrian refugees now registered with the UN refugee agency stands at over 400,000 people.

That is 400,000 living souls to shelter, to feed, to provide medical attention for, to give hope to.  It is now estimated that at least 36,000 Syrians have lost their lives in the ongoing violence since March of 2011.   Turkey is receiving the brunt of the refugee invasion, while Jordan and Lebanon both receive equal numbers, smaller than Turkey's totals; all, however, struggling to cope with the never-ending influx.

 Rebel forces overran three security compounds in the town of Ras akl-Ayn in predominantly Kurdish al-Hasaka province.  The UN's regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria warns that Syria is undergoing monumentally unrelenting increases in violence, suffering, displacement losses "and civilian Syrians continue to pay the price."

There are additional concerns growing that the conflict is drawing Kurds and Palestinians increasingly into the conflict, presaging a potential spread to other areas of the geography, making it even more difficult to manage the crisis amid hope that a solution lies not too far into the future before an explosive cataclysm of viral violence ensues.