...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
regime.
The Local Coordination Committee, which documents Syrian anti-government protests, said Jisr al-Shughour was attacked from the southern and eastern sides by troops in about 200 vehicles, including tanks. It said blasts were heard as helicopters clattered overhead.
The region near Turkey's border has a history of hostility toward the Syrian regime and is posing the biggest challenge yet to
President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
struggle to crush the anti-government revolt. Thousands of Syrians in the region have crossed into Turkey in recent days, taking sanctuary in refugee camps.
The Syrian government has said the town was under the control of "gunnies" who it said killed 120 coppers last week. Activists said the victims were killed when soldiers and police mutinied, turning their weapons on government forces.
Syrian forces told an News Agency that Dare Not be Named news hound invited to travel with them to Jisr al-Shughour that they were arresting "gunnies" in the largely evacuated city, normally home to about 40,000 people. Many of those who remained behind decamped on Sunday, if they could.
The AP news hound said government soldiers took news hounds into the town's National Hospital where they saw at least two dead bodies.
The operation in al-Shughour was continuing at midday.
Syria's state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
SANA said army units entered the area after dismantling explosives planted by gunnies on roads and bridges. It added that "heavy" festivities broke out between the army units and gunnies inside Jisr al-Shughour and areas surrounding it.
Jisr al-Shughour is a predominantly Sunni town with some Alawite and Christian villages nearby in Idlib province. Most Syrians are Sunni Mohammedan, but Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Syria-based human rights
...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
activist Mustafa Osso said the army is conducting military operations in three areas in the Idlib province including the towns of Maaret al-Numan, Jisr al-Shughour, and the nearby Jabal al-Zawiya, a mountain that includes several village.
Osso said advancing troops, using tanks, artillery and helicopters gunships, were fighting against hundreds of army defectors from the area. "This is the biggest and most dangerous wave of defections" since an uprising against Assad's regime began in mid-March, Osso said.
There have been smaller instances of defections in the southern city of Daraa and the western town of Talkalakh that witnessed military operations in the past weeks.
Human rights groups say more than 1,400 people nationwide have died in the government crackdown since the uprising erupted in southern Syria 12 weeks ago.
Meanwhile,
...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion...
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the U.N. Security Council must make a "clear statement" on Syria by proceeding with a resolution condemning the crackdown by government forces.
As international outrage at the brutal crackdown on demonstrators mounted, Hague said the prospects for a resolution were "on a knife-edge."
Hague also told Sky News that it was "high time" that Assad spoke to U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon.