In other news it would appear that Assad is now trying to conquer the liberated Syrians of Qusayr. And he has even got Hezbollah in on the act trying to seize Qusayr. It does not appear to be going very well. (FSA reportedly kills 18 Hezbollah fighters in Syrian city of Qusayr.)
I feel very sorry for those Hezbollah soldiers. No doubt many of them joined thinking they were going to fight Israel, and in times past Hezbollah did indeed do that. But now they are being cynically used to bail Assad out of the mess he has gotten himself into. Assad is responsible for this catastrophic situation by letting his so called 'security' forces murder thousands of peaceful protesters forcing them to take up arms in a desperate attempt to protect themselves.
May peace soon come to Syria and may Bashar al-Assad pay for his many crimes.
Update: It seems the death toll for the massacre is more like 479.
From Syria's Bright Future (Emphasis mine.) :
566 martyrs were recorded in Syria yesterday with at least 479 of them in the Jdaidet Artouz massacre, and the numbers are rising with the discovery of more bodies.
The LCC said: "After clashes between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and regime forces, and despite the FSA’s withdrawal to save civilian lives, the regime mobilized large numbers from its 4th Division, Republican Guard, Lebanese Hezbollah, and shabbiha militias from the Somarieh barracks to storm the city and attack civilians. Many of the casualties were women, children, and elderly persons. Some victims were slaughtered; others were shot. The corpses were set on fire near positions controlled by the regime’s 100th Regiment. These regime forces also launched an indiscriminate arrest campaign, which affected a large number of people who were trying to bury the martyrs of the massacre."
Many women and children were among those killed over the last few days in a south-west suburb of Damascus, according to an activists from the city.
Speaking to the Guardian via Skype, Susan Ahmad, spokeswoman for the Revolutionary Council in Damascus, said:
"Today in the morning, we discovered seven bodies killed in a building. These people were displaced [from the nearby suburbs of] Darayaa and Moadamyeh to Jdaidet al-Fadel seeking a safer place, but they unfortunately they got killed there by Assad’s forces.
We documented the names of all the dead bodies. The number is rising to almost 400. Every day we discover more and more dead bodies.
They [Assad’s forces] are acting like mad people. After slaughtering people, they burn the bodies.
It is not a civil war, actually it’s genocide. The Free Syrian Army was there because they are everywhere. They were already there but they were not active.
Why did Assad’s forces attacked Jdaidet al-Fadel now? They did so because for months they have been trying to storm Darayaa and Moadamyeh, but in vain. So they wanted to something to prove they are still in control and to lift their soldiers’ spirits up. So they went to that little village and started shelling it. After that they said ‘the Free Syrian Army are there. The Free Syria Army are terrorists so please leave the area or we are going to shell the whole area’. That’s what happen. After the Free Syrian Army withdrew snipers spread everywhere. They shot children just because they came close to windows. How can Assad’s forces say that they are fighting terrorists? Most of the dead people are civilians, and they were killed after the Free Syria Army withdrew."
Ahmad claimed several southern and eastern Damascus suburbs were under rebel control, but opposition forces have yet to penetrate the centre of the city.
"My neighbourhood [in northern Damscus] is under the control of Assad’s forces. We don’t have the Free Syrian Army here and still they shell it every other day.
Assad’s forces are determined to kill more people and never give up. I’m afraid that the worst is still to come, because there is nothing serious yet inside Damascus. The big battle hasn’t started yet."
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