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AP
Civilians flee fighting after Syrian army tanks entered the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria, on Feb. 14.
AP
Civilians flee fighting after Syrian army tanks entered the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria, on Feb. 14.
msnbc.com news services -- Syrian rebels have repelled a push by government tanks into a central town held by forces fighting President Bashar Assad's regime in an 11-month conflict that looks increasingly like a civil war.
The rebels have taken control of small swathes of territory in central Homs province, where Rastan is located, and the northwestern province of Idlib, which borders Turkey.
The military pressed its offensive Monday on Rastan, a day after the regime rejected Arab League calls for the U.N. to create a peacekeeping force in Syria and for an end to the violent crackdown on dissent. Damascus called the League initiative "a flagrant interference in (Syria's) internal affairs and an infringement upon national sovereignty."
AP
Syrian army tanks enter the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria, on Feb. 14.
AP
Civilians flee fighting after Syrian army tanks entered the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria, on Feb. 14.
With diplomatic efforts bogged down, the conflict is taking on the dimensions of a civil war, with army defectors clashing almost daily with soldiers.
The U.N. human rights chief, Navi Pillay, told the General Assembly on Monday that more than 5,400 people were killed last year alone, and the number of dead and injured continues to rise daily.
She said tens of thousands of people, including children, have been arrested, more than 18,000 reportedly are still arbitrarily detained and thousands more are reported missing.
In addition, 25,000 people are estimated to have sought refuge in neighboring countries and more than 70,000 are internally displaced.
"The breadth and patterns of attacks by military and security forces on civilians, and the widespread destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure indicate approval or complicity by authorities at the highest level," Pillay said.
AP
Civilians flee fighting after Syrian army tanks enter the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria, on Feb. 14. Syrian government forces renewed their assault on the rebellious city of Homs in what activists described as the heaviest shelling in days, as the U.N. human rights chief raised fears of civil war.
There has been a fresh round of artillery fire in the Syrian city of Homs, according to opposition activists. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
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the 4th picture is so sad
Everyone knows Tanks crush gorrilla style insurgency....
Shelling your own buildings is a good way to embolden the cause against you.. Assad's temper got to him and he is making mistakes that have proven to fail in history.
No way he will stay in power, it is only innevitable now.
To bad Syria is a little light in the oil producing arena otherwise NATO et all would be all over this. Also kinda sad the Arab League is run by a bunch of "girlymen" the League could actually be saving lives if they could grow a pair. Then again camels and sabers don't quite help out against tanks.
Puppet and beastly rulers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and some more a joke and we keep these beasts and jokers alive.
Look at Iraq wars! NATO forces had to save these most ungrateful beasts and get backstabbed by high oil prices!
500 Iranian Shiites rebelled in Mecca/Medina. The brave Saudi soldiers, who can battle girls, women and unarmed small groups of civilians or minorities superbly, could not dislodge those Shiites.
The same Saudi and their puppets marched their armies to Bahrain.
Now this bunch is talking of arming rebels in Syria.
Let these people battle among themselves to their hearts content. We can cheer some side (some Syria, some Saudi and other) at most!
Let them kill each other!
Back in the American Civil War, it was mostly just rifles and artillery and cavalry clashes with swords. That's still a lot to use against your fellow countrymen. How much worse to use tanks, machine guns, aircraft, and all of the other inventions of the last century and a half in addition! How do you ever put a country back together after this.
Years ago, "Papa" Assad put down a rebellion using "shock and awe", killing thousands at once and scaring everyone else out of rebelling. His son began with measured, proportionate responses, killing at first a few, then dozens, then hundreds, and now thousands. At this point I don't see how anything can save him. The people are so motivated to remove him that many of them realize that they are likely to be killed in the process and still the fight goes on. Once your populace has reached the point that they feel it is more important for the future for you to be removed than it is for them to keep on living, then your regime is doomed, and should be. Hope that we'll see more toleration for Druze, Christians, and other minorities than we are seeing in other places where the "Arab Spring" has occurred.
Don't count on much Christian tolerance. Once Assad is dead, or exiled, those people will be SOO pissedoff, any group the arabs feel got off easy will be in deep doodoo. Mark my words (I do hope I'm wrong).
After seeing the picture of those kids, crying in fear as they leave their homes, knowing nothing of what their future holds, I feel compelled to go fight along side these people. I dont even know all the facts/circumstances surrounding this situation but, seeing kids in that environment would allow me to take the life of whoever is causing the fear and misery of those children. HEARTBREAKING.
Dear, aliens,creator, Gods: we are a @!$%#ed up species, there's no arguing that, but some of us are good. Please take that into account when you...
Saudi, oil companies and their lobbyists' paid agents like UN, UN human rights groups, human right groups and others are making too many noises on Syria, Iran just like the jokes before and during Iraq wars!
What is 5000 killed in a Muslim nation?
Why are they not talking about Bahrain?
It is better all these people station themselves in Syria and Iran. We can cheer when Syrians, Iranians and other bulldoze these paid agents also.
Iraq was full of dramas. We don't need partisan and onsided dramas and get hurt for nothing.
In Iraq we got wounded and now with their new dramas in Syria and Iran, we will be mortally wounded!