Syria’s Ramadan massacre
WHEN THE SYRIAN regime lost control of the city of Hama last month, some Western experts concluded that President Bashar al-Assad would not attempt to restore his authority by force. Hama, after all, was the site of one of the most infamous massacres in the history of the Middle East — a 1982 assault ordered by Mr. Assad's father that killed tens of thousands. Surely, the experts opined, the world has changed enough that the regime would not even attempt to repeat its extraordinary crime.
And yet that is what Mr. Assad is doing. Early on Sunday, army troops led by tanks launched an assault on the city of 800,000 from four directions, firing cannon and machine guns indiscriminately at the unarmed residents manning street barricades. Video clips posted on YouTube showed the tanks blasting at the minarets of mosques in a city known for its Sunni conservatism, while snipers picked off people on the streets.
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Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=2c4340e2316997207ce9293bd761f188
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