Syrian general slain in Damascus, regime says

Last Updated 7:27 a.m. ET

BEIRUT - Gunmen assassinated an army general in Damascus on Saturday in the first killing of a high ranking military officer in the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March, the state-run news agency said.

SANA said three gunmen opened fire at Brig. Gen. Issa al-Khouli in the morning as he left his home in the Damascus neighborhood of Rukn-Eddine. Al-Khouli was a doctor and the chief of a military hospital in the capital. No one claimed responsibility for the killing.

The attack indicates that violence in Syria is reaching the tightly controlled capital, which has been relatively quiet compared to other cities. Such assassinations are not uncommon outside Damascus and army officers have been killed in the past, mostly in the restive provinces of Homs and Idlib.

On "CBS This Morning: Saturday," Marc Ginsberg, the former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, said the Obama administration, in refusing to get more involved in the unrest in Syria, is "sitting back on its laurels in Libya," while allowing the Syrian people to suffer.

"That's a double standard, that the slaughter that's taking place in Syria, evidenced by the interviews by the U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford just in the last few days, is an indication that the administration needs to stop leading from behind here and needs to basically coordinate a major effort to try to stop the arms transfers that Russia has engaged in under the very guise of its own veto. If there is any country that's actually engaged in militarizing the situation, it's Russia under the cover of its own veto."

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The U.N. estimates that 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March. But that figure is from January, when the U.N. stopped counting because the chaos in the country has made it all but impossible to check the figures.

The Assad regime says terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country are behind the uprising, not people seeking to transform the authoritarian regime. The Syrian government says more than 2,000 soldiers and police officers have been killed by terrorists since March.

Also Saturday, Syrian troops shelled the Baba Amr district in the central city of Homs, killing at least four people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees said 15 people were killed in Baba Amr on Saturday.

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Syrian troops have been trying to regain control of areas in Homs since last Saturday when they started a major offensive on rebel-held areas. Activists say more than 400 people have been killed in Homs since then.

The Observatory also reported a rare clash between troops and defectors late Friday in the northern Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun but had no details. It said troops shot dead an activist in the area.

The violence came a day after two suicide car bombers struck security compounds in the northern city of Aleppo, killing 28 people. The blasts were the first significant violence in an industrial center that has largely stood by Assad during the 11-month uprising against his rule.

Anti-Assad activists denied any involvement and accused the regime of setting off Friday's blasts to smear the opposition as government forces pummel rebels in one of their main strongholds, Homs. State media touted the bombings as proof the regime faces a campaign by terrorists.

[smittyc]

Assad was smarter then Mubarak or Kadafi. He allied his country with the Russians and Chinese. Russian nuclear sub and air craft carrier lie in Syrian waters sending a message to Washington. China is sending the Syrian government munitions. With tens years of military spending in Iraq, and 11 years of military spending in Afghanistan, the American deficit is over 15 trillion a staggering sum. China just has to refuse buying our debt and could even through the treasuries out there that they own, collapsing the dollar and the U.S. stock markets, destroying our federal reserve and banking system. Obama has spent 3.4 trillion in his first two years and over 2.5 in the remaining 2 years. He has bankrupted the country with more debt to be added if someone will buy it. What does this all mean? It means America cannot afford another war and especially with our creditor China.. It means we should have pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan after Obama took office. Instead we wasted tax dollar and raised the debt, shipped hundreds of billions of dollars overseas in foreign aid. We increased the troops in Afghanistan and caused political unrest in every nation in the middle east which is now clamoring for more foreign aid and receiving it while one in six Americans live in poverty. Wake up folks. Obama has bankrupted our country, we can't afford to be in Afghanistan much less get involved in Syria.

[netjunkie1]

please back your information with detailed sources....
As far as I've seen from your posting, you go off tangent with a russian aircraft carrier...they only have one. We have a fleet and a fleet to spare.

[netjunkie1]

The question about China....true that they can send our economy into dis array but at the cost of possible war, possible self destruction because of it, the entire world economy would collapse...true, the commies have us by the short hairs...ask this question, how did they get there?
Because international corporations took root there, lobbied for favored nation status, and bought the American political system since Reagan.

[BOBW5BW]

ASSAD IS PURE EVIL!
Hopefully the Rebels will get more Generals and all of Assad's Family, Friends and neighbors!
They need to go after weak targets such as Public works and high rank Administration People! Sabotage Everything Gas, Water Electric and Communications towers!
This fool Assad has a chance to leave just like Hussein and Gaddafi had but he is too dumb to leave!
Assad is murdering more people everyday and making more enemies every day! Even the Colonel's, Majors, Captains and enlisted personnel must got home some time! Seek the weakest link and destroy it!

[realtimecoffee]

If there was ever a perfect opportunity to use our new drones over boots policy this screams for it. I am curious why this is a no go and Libya got the green light. They seem similar except for two things, the Iran connection and a direct threat to Israel.

[smittyc]

Libya cut ties with the Russians and Chinese and sided with the United States. Syria stuck with their long term allies, bought tanks and munitions from China and Russia. When Clinton pulled the plug on Libya and others in the middle east, China and Russia had no vested interest to intervene. Currently, Egypt and Libya are making overtures to China and Russia, the channels are through Iran. We have a diplomatic mess on our hands in the middle east, that's for sure.

[netjunkie1]

by smittyc February 11, 2012 7:48 PM EST
Libya cut ties with the Russians and Chinese and sided with the United States. Syria stuck with their long term allies...
________________________________________________________________
Libyans suffered under Gaddafi and it wasn't surprising that they embrace the US and reject the Russians and Chinese because they are abusing their own peoples.
In negotiations with China and Russia, the are compensated for losses incurred for dealings they may have made under contract obligations...sometimes their interests override these offers.
The leadership of these countries are who are overidding the will of their people and claim authority to make policy over any objection great and small through the use of overwehlming force.
My advice to any Syrians that want a free government is to get the hell out of Syria.

[rockymountainskip]

The age old strategy of divide and conquer is taking place in Syria.
Assad belongs to the Alawite sect which is aligned with the Shiites. The rebel forces( so called protestors) are Sunni. America and Israel are backing the rebel forces because they want regime change in Syria, America wants a Sunni government installed in Syria.
Assad's Alawites Syria has a defense pact with Iran, when one country is attacked by foreign forces the other country will assist. The defense pact was signed in 2006, and Iran and Syria say they are committed to the pact. If Assad is toppled and a Sunni government installed, a Sunni Syria would be hostile towards Iran. Iran is a Shiite nation which has close ties with the Assad regime.
I hope I do not have to explain that military tension is building between Iran and America/Israel. America will soon have 3 carrier groups in the vicinity of Iran, with a fourth(USS George W. Bush) one day sail away. Israel is pushing America to consider the military option against Iran, Israel believes sanctions will not stop Iran's nuclear program.
The road to Tehran is through Damascus, toppling Assad is a stepping stone towards preparing the theater for a strike on Iran. America is voicing concern over the humanitarian conditions in Syria, but America's true agenda is regime change. Toppling Assad makes a strike on Iran much more easy.
Assad's Syria also supports Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah, a Sunni Syria would cut its support to Hezbollah. Toppling Assad,therefore, kills two security concerns of Israel. America's foreign policy doesn't revolve around humanitarian concerns, America foreign policy revolves around Israel.

[fedup12]

Ahhhh ha ha..... Political analysis from the lay man.

How bout if we just stay out of it?

[bobboy3]

daf21ref

[bobboy3]

Is Egypt any better off now that a dictator was toppled? No. Be careful what we think is so correct and virtuous.

[fedup12]

We loved Saddam. Till we hated him.

[signseeker1717]

Ask the EGYPTIANS that question. We never had to live under Mubarak. THEY did.

[bobboy3]

Is Egypt any better off now that a dictator was toppled? No. Be careful what we think is so correct and virtuous.

[usunus]

Ask Ford,the American ambassador to Syria about the assassination.Sitting in Washington D.C, the guy seems to know everything going on in Syria !

[LCCLYDE]

Very interesting posts and food for thought about the Syrian situation.But whether its a faction just as evil and corrupt as assad thats behind this dont change the fact Assad is a murderer as much as any of his ilk,Saddam,Khaddafi or Hitler.And people will not be bound forever.His days are numbered,he will pay for his murders....soon.

[Anotheryahoo]

Like Egypt they will go from one dictator tyrant to a religious dictator tyrant, whats even the point when Islam is 100% opposed to individual liberty freedom and choice? The U.S. taxpayer can not be expected to fund Islam in any form at all when it is the threat to to our Constitution and everything it means.

[LCCLYDE]

Interesting opinion

[askagain]

Good points. The United States won't be any better off with a religiuos tyrant in Syria as with the current Syrian regime. Iran is a perfect exemple. And Egypt was a fairly close ally in the Middle East.