Syria

Syrian opposition activists reported a mass killing of villagers by pro-government militiamen and security forces on Wednesday — if verified, the fourth massacre in less than two weeks — threatening to inject a new surge of angry momentum into the growing international effort to isolate President Bashar al-Assad and remove him from power. The accounts of the mass killing, in the village of Qubeir in central Hama Province, could not be independently corroborated, and United Nations monitors in Syria could not immediately gain access to the site. The accounts said as many as 78 civilians were killed, half of them women and children, including 35 members of one family. Some were burned and stabbed.

The killings were reported as representatives of more than 55 countries pressing for Mr. Assad’s resignation threatened to sharply expand their financial pressure on his government at a meeting in Washington sponsored by the United States Treasury, and as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Turkey, an outspoken critic of Syria, for further talks on how to quickly reach a solution to the Syria crisis that would depose Mr. Assad.

A senior Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mrs. Clinton was sending Fred Hof, a special Middle East envoy from the State Department, to Moscow on Thursday to assess whether Russia and the United States could achieve a common vision on a post-Assad political transition in Syria. Russia, which has been Mr. Assad’s most powerful foreign backer, has repeatedly opposed outside intervention in the Syrian conflict but has recently suggested it is not opposed to new leadership in Syria, its most important ally in the Middle East.

If the Qubeir massacre accounts are confirmed, they are likely to place enormous new pressure on Kofi Annan, the joint special envoy to Syria from the United Nations and the Arab League, whose nearly-two-month-old peace plan has not only failed to halt the bloodshed in the 16-month-old Syrian uprising but, in the view of some critics, has strengthened Mr. Assad’s resolve.     

Like the article on the E.U. I was interested in this article because it was on a subject that is important to me but has of late disappeared from the national eye for the last few months. With the Arab Spring now pretty much dead in the water Syria seems to be one of the last regions in the position to throw off the shackles of their dictatorship. A few months ago though a ceasefire was called between the rebels and the government but no reforms were made and now the killing and massacres have started again. In my opinion these people deserve a chance at freedom and it's impossible for them to acheive this without at least military assisstance from the U.S. government. The Syrian government is too terrible and cruel to be trusted to make amends and comprimise with the rebels and do what's best for their own people.