From the very beginning of the revolution, the Assads have been the only party that had plans and contingency plans, and they are sticking to them. It seems we may not have to wait for long before an all-out cut-down-the-tall-trees moment comes in many mixed communities that the Assads want to see cleansed of their Sunni inhabitants. This is the story of a genocide that could have been averted.
Thursday June 07, 2012
Today’s death toll: 44, mostly in the town of Hiffeh and surrounding villages in Lattakia Province.
Air strikes were reported against different communities in Daraa, Jabal Al-Zawiyeh (Idlib Province) and Hiffeh.
The poundings of the towns of Eizaz, Manag, Hayan, Al-Abizmo and Deir Jamal in Aleppo Province continued.
The town of Talbisseh, Homs Province, came under heavy pounding driving most of the local population into the surrounding fields.
Activists in a number of communities in Idlib and Daraa provinces report that choppers sprayed a gas over their communities that left many people suffering from poison-like symptoms, including fainting and vomiting.
News
Op-Eds & Special Reports
On Assad’s Doorstep The revolution is finally coming to the once quiet, now tense streets of inner Damascus.
Those facing Assad’s guns are not asking us to put boots on the ground. What they do want are the means to defend themselves, secure communications technology, and a limited number of other assets that will give them a fighting chance — though no guarantees. Providing such assistance will give us a fighting chance to influence the opposition now and the post-Assad environment later — though no guarantees.
While it’s hard to say whether the Syrian regime is preparing a fallback plan of an Alawite mini-state, it’s clear that Assad is pursuing a policy of Alawite inner consolidation. The Assad regime’s Alawite-dominated forces are already little more than a sectarian militia. By arming Alawite villages and using them as launching pads for attacks against Sunnis, as he did in Houla and al-Qubayr (and possibly Haffeh), Assad is hardening the sectarian boundaries and implicating the entire Alawite community in the murder of Sunnis, further bonding its fate to his. If the Sunnis retaliate, as he surely must have counted they would, all the better.
Annan Buries Own Plan: Now What?
“We cannot allow mass killing to become part of everyday reality in Syria,” Annan said. “The crisis is escalating. The violence is getting worse. The abuses are continuing. The country is becoming more polarized and more radicalized. And Syria’s immediate neighbors are increasingly worried about the threat of spillover.” Annan said that unless the fighting is halted, “all Syrians will lose.”
The United States, the United Kingdom, and France, which have favored Assad’s ouster, and Russia and China, which have not, would finally be on the same page on Syria at the head of a “contact group” of these world powers and regional countries. But Russia’s willingness to go along with Mr. Annan’s plan, analysts say, depends on whether or not it believes that its interests in Syria, its last toehold in the Middle East, can be preserved despite Assad’s departure.
Annan stressed that “individual actions or interventions will not resolve the crisis” — an apparent reference to opposition fighters and the countries providing them with arms and financial support. “If we genuinely unite behind one process, and act and speak with one voice, I believe it is still possible to avert the worst and enable Syria to emerge from this crisis,” he said.
Video Highlights
General
We have not been able to document the immediate aftermath of the massacres in
Houla and
Maarzaf (Qubeir Farms) to show you the celebrations of pro-Assad Alawite militias due to lack of access, but, thanks to
this leaked video that shows pro-Assad Alawite militias celebrating a a recent massacre they perpetrated at the village of Hammameh at Idlib province, we can show how they celebrated their feat there, and you can deduce the rest
http://youtu.be/mS_vjw1jo9c
Activists report the use of poison gas sprayed from low flying planes in a number of provinces, including Daraa, Hama and Idlib: A victim from Daraa
http://youtu.be/nqwuveqgvjE
Lattakia
In
Lattakia City, Sunni neighborhoods don’t sleep. They come under fire from Alawite militias, Sunni inhabitants seek refuge in prayers and show their defiance by reiterating cries of Allahu Akbar from their balconies
http://youtu.be/bMF0aTjqimw ,
http://youtu.be/c5HHS1HZkT0 ,
http://youtu.be/ydxmi-lHQpU But the city’s air is thick with sectarian tensions, as all seem to wait and dread the coming of the Moment.
Homs
Hama
Damascus
Aleppo
Daraa
Deir Ezzor
