Violent Weekend in Syria

It was an unusually violent weekend inside Syria and stormy diplomatically outside the country as Bashar Al-Assad’s regime both inside the Arab world and out. The Syrian army intensified its assault against anti-government forces in Homs, Hama and parts of Damascus. Reports said that in Hama 20 bodies were found in the hospital and elsewhere the corpses of men, bound and shot through the head, were dumped like sacks from trucks. Al-Assad is under increasing diplomatic pressure as the Arab League moved its peace plan to the United Nations Security Council and instructed its 165 monitors to suspend their operations on the ground. Damascus expressed surprise and regret over that decision. But Al-Assad is still enjoying the full backing of Moscow. Ukaz, a Saudi newspaper, reported that Russia is planning to veto any Security Council resolution. It also reported that the Syrian opposition was planning to set up a government in exile. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the tally of people killed in the past four days was 212, most of them were civilians. The UN says that over 5,400 have been killed since the rebellion began 10 months ago.