NY Times:
At least 10,000 protesters have been detained in the past several days in a mass arrest campaign aimed at quelling a seven-week uprising in Syria against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, activists said, as fresh shelling of a residential neighborhood was reported on Wednesday from Homs, the country’s third largest city.
The shelling, most intense between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., appeared to signal a further escalation in the crackdown.
“The situation is so bad this morning,” Abu Haydar, a resident there, said by telephone. “It’s been continuous shelling since Sunday.”
He said he spent the night in a basement and described the city as paralyzed, with only grocery stores and pharmacies daring to open. Checkpoints had proliferated through the city, with security forces checking residents’ identity documents, Mr. Haydar said.
The Syrian government widened its crackdown on Tuesday to include more cities and towns. Activists said army troops, backed by tanks, entered Hama, in central Syria, and several southern villages near Dara’a, the impoverished and besieged town in a region known as the Houran that has become a symbol of the uprising.
“The big question now is what’s next,” said Wissam Tarif, executive director of Insan, a Syrian human rights group. “They are about to announce victory, but what will happen when they pull the troops out?”
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It appears that Syria's declaration of victory was premature. I don't think they can pull the troops out and win. They have so alienated the population that it will probably be unlikely that any pullback will be effective at this point. The escalation of the attack by shelling a civilian population is only going to make matters worse. This regime has lost its credibility and its legitimacy. The world needs to stop pretending that it is important to the region.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
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