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Subscribe to RSSJournalists and photographers remain severely restricted in their coverage of the Syrian conflict, but three images made available by Agence France Presse on Friday offer an insight into the deteriorating situation in the country.
AFP - Getty Images
The mother of 5 year-old Yazan Gassan Rezk holds his body during his funeral on Thursday, June 21. The child was killed by a sniper at a checkpoint in Qusayr, outside the flashpoint city of Homs, AFP reports.
According to the United Nations, up to 1.5 million Syrians now need humanitarian assistance but the worsening violence means that no further aid workers are being sent to the field.
AFP - Getty Images
Soldiers from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) detain alleged members of the pro-government "Shabiha" militia in an undisclosed location in the north of Idlib province on Tuesday, June 19. The men were identified as Mehsin Mohamed Ahmed and Mohamed Azezz, from Aleppo city, and accused by the FSA of stealing from homes and passing information to the authorities.
Blamed for some of the most barbaric massacres committed since the beginning of the uprising 15 months ago, the "Shabiha" are feared tools of a regime seeking to dissociate itself from atrocities, experts and activists say.
Reuters reported on Friday that the bodies of 26 men believed to be from the "Shabiha" have been found in Aleppo province.
AFP - Getty Images
FSA fighters at an undisclosed location in Syria on Thursday, June 21.
On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed the worry that shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles could find their way onto the Syrian battlefield, fueling concerns that sophisticated weapons might make their way to what Reuters described as "the wrong kind of Syrian rebels."
Ben Hubbard, a correspondent for The Associated Press who recently spent two weeks in northern Syria, reported Thursday that the opposition remains divided and unable to break the regime's stranglehold on many large towns.
Hubbard and two colleagues counted more than 20 rebel groups, with anywhere from fewer than 100 to more than 1,000 fighters each, and reported that there was very little coordination between the separate factions.
"If we get military aid, the end will come quickly," Ahmed Abdel-Qader, a rebel coordinator in the village of Koreen, told the AP. "If not, we have no idea how this will end. We are here. We're not going back. God will decide the rest."
Related content:
- War-torn city of Homs scarred by violence, riddled with fear
- A pause in fighting allows people of Idlib to get food, collect their dead
- From the front line to the front page: Syria's image war
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Before commenting, please answer a few questions: were we better off before 1991 Iraqi war and now?
How many major wars have we won since WWII?
Has Libyan "revolution" helped or harmed? Just wait and watch!
Easiest way to weaken a nation is through wars. We are into reckless ones (Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time; plans on Syria and Iran while being neck deep in troubles in Afghanistan) these days.
We are slowly falling into the traps of our enemies by getting ready to do dirty work in Syria, Iran and other places as directed by Saudis and co.
Russia and China are playing their games too!
If atrocities and barbarism on girls, children and women are the criteria, then the most despotic, autocratic and bigoted Sunni Saudi ruler with his 5000 princes and princesses, Kuwaiti, UAE and other Arab League Sunni rulers and their rich sheiks are the biggest culprits in the history.
Through the Muslim immoral trafficking gangs, these barbarians have assembled all varieties of poor and helpless girls and women from all over the world in their harems and brothels.
In killing of opponents again, these people have established world records.
If the US, Britain and others support such Sunni barbarians and beasts who treat girls and women as cheap sex slaves, then one can only conclude that Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists determine what to see, how to lecture and where and when to act.
Rest like “human rights”, “killing of children and women”, “militants”, “terrorists”, “WMDs”, “chemical weapons” and so on are a pure hoax.
Similar hoaxes were played each time before Iraqi wars on directions of Saudi, oil companies and their lobbyists.
Now none of them are looking into Iraq!
In any struggle between a civilian militia and the established military fringe elements are formed. Think of it as particles colliding and new elements being formed by the energy of the impact. The new elements while unique, have characteristic of the elements involved in the original collision. The more the number of collisions the higher the new element count climbs, but they still have basic elemental components that can be traced back to the original collision. So it is with Syria.
The challenge for the US is to identify which elements we want to be propagated and which ones we want to drift away into oblivion. What we know for absolutely sure is that no one can completely control this situation and that we can not allow the situation to go completely out of control. We are than left with the difficult decision of who to help, who to hinder and who to ignore.
We have to exert some control through assistance, guidance and only when absolutely necessary direct involvement, but we can not stay completely detached. We have several key alliances in the region (Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon and Israel). We also have potential threats in the regions (Russia, Iran, and a reconstituted Syria if Assad wins). Hence we have to control what happens in Syria as best we can without getting directly involved.
We have an excellent Special Operations component that is well trained, experienced and currently plying their skills in dozens of countries without direct combat operations. We have over seventy years developed a reasonably efficient mechanism for placing the needed tools in the hands of the people confronting regimes like Assad. And though we've had our share of miss-steps and foul ups, that should not preclude us from using our considerable skills in covert measures to assist with bringing the Assad regime down. We can work on correcting whatever popular regime that follows, but first Assad has to go.