After Assad's Darayya Massacre

A few days ago I heard about the massacre in Darayya. I had heard that 300 were wickedly murdered by Assadite forces. Just a little while ago I have read actually 600 were murdered by the Assadites.

Assad will soon fall. His regime cannot survive and will fall.

Link. Robert Fisk's report of Assad's latest massacre. Says it was sparked off from a prisoner exchange which went wrong. Also talks to several persons who talk of people being killed. Responsibility for deaths mentioned is left obscure.

The Local Coordination Committees’ in Daraya response to Mr. Robert Fisk. LCC Darayya asserts that various atrocities highlighted by Fisk were actually committed by Assadites or caused by them and dismisses prisoner swap story as an "unbelievable...story" from the Assadites.

Link. FSA targeting Assadite military airports in Aleppo to cripple Assad's planes. FSA blame Assad regime for car bomb which killed 27 people in Damascus.

But the opposition Syrian National Council accused Assad’s regime of staging the bombing against its own supporters in a bid to divert attention from the killings of hundreds of people during an army assault last week on a largely Sunni Muslim suburb of the capital [Darayya].

“The regime wants to cover up for its massacres,” SNC spokesman George Sabra said, alluding to the deaths in the town of Daraya that sparked an international outcry.

“It also wants to punish residents of Jaramana -- who are of mixed religious backgrounds -- for welcoming people who were displaced from nearby towns,” Sabra told AFP by telephone.

“The regime’s fingerprints are clear,” charged Sabra, himself a Christian. “The regime does not want anyone to welcome refugees from other cities. And it wants to turn the revolution... into a bloody civil war fought along sectarian lines.”

I am somewhat skeptical of this assertion but I will say that I have heard before how the Assad regime punishes communities simply for letting in refugees from other parts of Syria. I remember hearing after Assad bombarded Baba Amr, Homs that towns which accepted refugees from there were being harassed by the Assad regime, including Christians.

Link. Abdelbaset Sieda, leader of the Syrian National Council criticizes the US government for telling France that preparing a government-in-waiting is premature. I feel compelled to agree. Good on President Hollande for trying to help the creation of a new, non-Assadite government. This is a good move.

Link. Daily Kos profile of Clay Claiborne, a dedicated blogger who has been closely following the situation in Libya and Syria. Hat tip to him for the following two links.

Syrian Support Group. An NGO based in the US dedicated to aiding the Free Syrian Army and sending money to them. The US Treasury have given the Syrian Support Group a license to raise funds for the FSA. The New York Times and Wikipedia have discussed this group.

Link. 25 minute documentary of a reporter who visited Benghazi and Misrata, Libya in August 2011 during the turmoil of the Libyan Civil War and records what he sees there. May the Libyan people's victory be soon replicated in Syria by the Syrian people.

Link. Gulf News says Iran is sending Revolutionary Guards to aid Assad's murderous repression.

Link. A dire report of the state of literally hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the fighting caused by Assad's military and thugs embarking on their murderous rampage which has shocked the world.

Bosnians Who Fled Syria Describe a Hellish War. Bosnians flee Syria and talk about it.

Dzenana Abas, 33, survived the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo. But she said what she endured in Aleppo was "beyond belief."

May this unfathomable horror soon end for the Syrian people. May the murderer, Bashar al-Assad, and the murderous regime he now leads, be soon defeated so that the Syrian people may live in peace and love their families and friends, and work for better lives for themselves and their families in peace. May that day soon come.