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SANA via Reuters
Black smoke is seen rising from Homs refinery in Syria on Dec. 8, 2011 in this handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency. A pipeline carrying oil from the east of the country to a refinery in Homs was blown up on Thursday.
Reuters reports from BEIRUT:
A Syrian pipeline carrying oil from the east of the country to a vital refinery in Homs was blown up Thursday in what the official news agency SANA said was an act of sabotage by an armed terrorist group.
Opposition activists said flames and clouds of thick black smoke were seen at the site of the explosion in a suburb of the city, the epicenter of popular unrest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in March.
"This is the main pipeline that feeds the Homs refinery," said Rami Abdulrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The activist network also reported seven people killed in Homs Thursday by snipers and in "random" shootings.
SANA said the pipeline was attacked in the Tal Asour area to the northwest of the refinery on the outskirts of Homs, a city of 800,000 where -- activists say -- about 1,500 people have been killed in the crackdown. Read the full story.
Anonymous via Reuters
Black smoke is seen rising from a pipeline in Homs on Dec. 8, 2011. The pipeline was blown up on Thursday, an activist group said.
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The fragmentation of the Syrian nation is now beginning. I can remember discussing this society and its patchwork of ethnicities and sectarian divisions over twenty years ago as a young university student. None of us saw this coming at the time. Back in those days, the Syrian nation had gained somewhat of reprieve and renewed US favor per support of the Gulf War 1 mission to liberate Kuwait (I policy that I supported at the time and still do with hindsight).
The reality is now dawning on the mid-east rulers, Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and all other power players on the globe that the Assad government is not likely to survive the long-term. For the time being, the loyalty of the Allawite shia minority and the loyalties of various Sunni factions of this society plus the other lesser minority groups such as Druze or Christians will keep the regime floating. But with more and more defections of military and police personnel to the oppostion, I don't see how this government can sustain itself.
The best approach for the US, Europe is to provide continuous verbal support to the democratic asperations of the people without getting involved with a significant fingerprint that would only play into the hands of the Assad regime. The government of Israel should stay completely quiet to remove any ability to assign culpability to the Israeli's for what is clearly a domestic issue in Syria. The one thing that this Syrian government would like to do at this time is to focus rage on an alleged external aggressor, rather than confront the reality of the domestic uprising for what it actually is (i.e. a true societal revolution).
Not directly related, but the reaction by Putin to Hillary Clinton clearly reflects Russia's desire to focus on external aggressors as culpable for current protests in that nation rather than address the grievances of their population. The formula for these autocratic and dictatorial regimes to maintain power is pretty much self-evident.
I agree. We need to support this uprising at arms length. No need to give the Assad gov any reason to change the focus to us.