U.N. observers see bodies of 92 dead in Syria massacre
CNN) -- More than 92 people, including 32 children younger than 10, were killed Friday by artillery tank shells in the Syrian village of Houla, a spokesman for the joint special envoy to Syria said Saturday.
United Nations observers went to Houla and viewed the bodies Saturday, a day after opposition activists reported a massacre there at the hands of the Syrian regime. The activists said entire families were killed.
Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, the head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, said the attacks happened overnight but that the circumstances that led to the deaths is unclear.
"This indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is unacceptable and unforgivable," Mood said in a statement provided by Ahmad Fawzi, the spokesman for envoy Kofi Annan. "The killing of innocent children and civilians needs to stop."
I have long debated with myself and others on the merits of arming the insurgent fighters in Syria. The risks had been clear...it might escalate the conflict on all sides, result in terrorists gaining sophisticated weaponry, and destabilize the region particularly Lebanon.
The circumstances have changed. The conflict IS escalating, the region IS destabilizing, and Al Qaeda is already working to exploit a protracted conflict.
Bashar al Assad has no designs on maintaining the ceasefire. Shown no willingness to step aside in any fashion. This latest atrocity but the latest in 10,000+ innocent civilians his regime has murdered in the last year. It is apparent that no reliable Arms Embargo will pass through the UN Security Council due to Russian & Chinese veto threats. And even though Assad has burned through cash reserves, it is clear his oil-rich allies in Iran are willing to prop him up financially.
The CIA and State Department should begin finding elements of the Free Syrian Army...those that are organized, committed to democratic reform, and disavow terrorism. Upon identifying these resistance fighters, we must work to provide them with arms, money, training, supplies, and intelligence to wage attrition on Assad loyalist forces.
They should especially receive antitank weapons to disable and destroy the armored vehicles most responsible for the indiscriminate shelling on these towns and villages.
Many elements of Assad's army have likely remained loyal because of the near invincibility of those tanks. It is safe to be inside them, and suicidal to fight them.
Most of this can be done via our allies in the region...Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, newly liberated Libya. We can provide the critical needs of logistics, intelligence, financial incentive to defectors, and determining which FSA battalions will benefit most from support.
Thankfully, it appears this is already about to happen.
http://thehill.com/...
The White House has signed off on a plan ordering American officials to begin laying the groundwork for arming rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian president Bashir al-Assad.
Under the plan, first reported by the Associated Press, U.S. government officials will begin vetting certain elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to evaluate whether they meet the criteria to receive military support.
The vetting process will likely be run by the Pentagon, State Department and the U.S. intelligence community, with various Gulf states providing the actual weapons to the FSA and others.
Assad's troops have used tanks and heavy artillery to devastating effect against poorly equipped rebel forces armed with nothing more than assault rifles and various other small arms.
Days before the administration's disclosure of the vetting plan, rumors had already begun to swirl on Capitol Hill that the White House was preparing to make a change on Syria.
It is time to be on the correct side of history.