Syria opposition claims 300 killed in just 1 day; U.N. says 700K may flee nation this year

An image taken from a video posted online by Syrian opposition activists shows the bodies of men allegedly killed by Syrian state forces in al-Dhiyabia, south of Damascus, Sept. 26, 2012. The content of the video could not be independently verified. / Youtube

(CBS News) LONDON - Statistics given Wednesday by opposition groups and the United Nations show Syria's civil war is getting worse, not better.

A prominent opposition group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, claimed that more than 300 Syrians were killed on Wednesday alone, including at least 40 in what rebels described as the latest massacre by Syrian troops in a town south of Damascus.

None of the figures given by the Observatory to the Reuters news agency could be independently verified, due to the Syrian regime's restrictions on journalists in the country.

Victims of the alleged massacre in al-Dhiyabia were shown in a video posted online by activists. The rebels claim there were men of all ages and women and children among the dead, but the video showed the corpses only of men, ranging in age from their teens to what appeared to be the 60s.

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The Observatory claimed that as many as 107 people may have been killed by regime forces in al-Dhiyabia.

Both Assad's government and the opposition groups have engaged in a propaganda war and greatly exaggerated the facts of violent incidents in the war.

In a clear sign of the rebels' mounting ability to challenge Assad's armed forces, two explosions tore through the Syrian military's headquarters in central Damascus on Wednesday, killing four people and causing significant damage. An Iranian television reporter was killed in the ensuing gun battle.

Meanwhile, the United Nations agency for refugees said that by the end of 2012, a daunting 700,000 Syrians may have fled their nation due to the civil war. The official tally from the U.N. says about 294,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring Jordan, Turkey and Iraq to avoid the bloodshed already.

[davebehrens]

Why should the USA commit ANY resources to mitigate the Syrian debacle, or any other Islamic war? Muslims are killing Muslims, albeit at too slow a rate in my opinion, and I welcome it. Read the Quran's Verse of the Sword, Surah 9:5, or Surah 9:29 for irrefutable evidence as to how ALL professed Muslims must confront the non-Islamic portion of Earth's people. Hint: Convert to Islam, or pay a yearly tax (jizyah) and be made to feel subjugated in the paying, or be summarily butchered.

Shrewdly calculating Muslim governments are AGAIN awaiting the Great Infidel to spill American blood and dissipate American resources to depose a Muslim dictator. While they husband their oil riches and wait to decry the defilement of their sovereign territory by the feet of American troops, should they be sent to do the dirty work, these cowardly Muslim governments' hands remain politically clean. This gives zealous mullahs the opportunity to characterize American military involvement in any degree as Islamic genocide. We have made ourselves into absolute fools by acting as the world's policeman. Did America get one gallon of free oil from either Iraq or Kuwait for deposing Sadam Hussein?? Will America get priority access to Afghanistan's vast mineral wealth?? Has America gained a willing ally, not a paid friend like Pakistan, in any Mideast endeavor?? The answer to these questions is a resounding NO.

The argument that 'we are spreading democracy' in these Muslim countries is a testament to our fundamental ignorance of Islam. Greek inspired, western style, fully participative democracy is anathema to Islam and Sharia Law. Islam comes closest to democracy in the Quran's Surah 42:38, in which a powerless, strictly consultative assembly (shura) is suggested, albeit not required. The shura certainly cannot challenge Sharia Law as interpreted by the Islamic priesthood, who are the de facto rulers of all Islamic political entities.

Is the lesson of the recent Egyptian popular election of an Islamic zealot lost on the average American, and his government?? The Quran dictates that Muslims live in an Islamic theocracy, ruled by Sharia Law. A majority of Egyptians freely voted against democracy and for the implementation of that Islamic theocracy. Understand exactly what that means. A majority of Egyptians, in the only opportunity in their lifetime to vote to choose how and by whom they will be governed, voted to never have that choice again. Bloody, expensive American interventions will always fail if their goal is to establish even a semblance of democracy.

[larryk64]

Excellent and accurate! Western people understand religion based on a western "Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim" view. Basically, each religion not only tolerates the other, but have no issue socializing collectively.

In the rest of the world, it is not so. Entire countries identities are based on religion first, country second.

[robertozark]

Just another bump in the road.

[paul2625]

Where are the protests ? .... I guess these people don't count.

[M-Saeed]

Greating all,
we see civilazet nation like Syria is happening this type of act. In short time we will see smilar acts in the golf regions like Saudi Arabia, Emirats and Iran because the mentality of their leaders is same. The human lives in those regions has no value that is the truth, the quetion is who put the power on those butchers the answer is the british royal family in early 1900, and they still want to stay in power, despite the fake speach of mr David Camron in the United nation. The point is the british and the french authority support those dictators in the region specially france.

[Nikos_Retsos]

The number of casualties reported in this article shows the world that Syrian president Bashar Assad has turned his country into a slaughterhouse to stay in power. Worse yet, he still continues to describe the Syrian rebels as armed gangs with the intention of justifying their killing as the killing of criminals. Assad's regime doesn't say how many captured Syrian rebels are in custody because there is probably none! By describing them as gangs, Assad sidesteps the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, and execute them on the spot as criminals. And by killing all of his captured opponents as criminals, and by bombing into rubble any neighborhood suspected of being under the control of rebels, Assad can afford to being cocky and brags that he will defeat the Syrian Arab Spring! Syria, therefore, has become a slaughterhouse, second only to the infamous "Killing Fields" of Cambodia under the Kmer Rouge regime.

The twin bombing by the rebels of a Syrian army building in the center of the Syrian capital Damascus yesterday, however, also proves that Assad's widespread slaughter is not making a dent on the rebels. The Syrian civilians pay the heavy price, both in the body count, and in the massive Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. I have no doubt that the above bombing against a military target in the center of Damascus proves that the Syrian rebels have the capability to strike anywhere and to demoralize the Syrian army. There is no doubt, therefore, that as the rebels are getting better, the situation for Assad's regime is getting worse.

I have seen reports in the media that Bashar Assad's wife Alma calls him by the nickname "duck!" (The Telegraph, March 20, 2012) Ironically, Assad has become a proverbially "sitting duck" in his own country. He is holed in Damascus, and he is not free to travel outside the capital, while he brags to the media that he is in full control, and that he will defeat the armed gangs of the terrorists. There is a saying in the annals of civil wars: "If the government is not winning a civil war, it is losing it!" That is what is happening in Syria today. The only 3 things that remains to be resolved are: a) When the Assad regime will collapse. b) Where Bashar Assad will seek asylum. And c) When the International Criminal Court (ITC) will indict him for war crimes! Nikos Retsos, retired professor