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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Violence Kills 12 as Syrian Revolt Death Toll Tops 14,100
2012-06-11
[An Nahar] Violence in Syria killed at least 12 people on Sunday bringing the corpse count since the start of the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's
The Scourge of Hama...
regime to more than 14,100, a monitoring group said.

Those killed since March last year comprised 9,862 civilians, 3,470 soldiers and 783 army deserters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britannia-based watchdog counts rebel fighters who are not deserters from the army as civilians.

The violence has intensified in Syria despite the presence of 300 United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
observers charged with monitoring a truce that was supposed to take effect from April 12.

On Saturday, at least 111 people -- 83 civilians and 28 soldiers -- were killed, according to revised figures from the Observatory, representing one of the heaviest single-day corpse counts since the nominal start of the ceasefire.

On Sunday, shelling of the town of Qusayr on the border with Leb killed an activist and five civilians, the Observatory said.

Three non-combatants were killed in a similar bombardment of the town of Talbisseh, 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border, the Britannia-based watchdog said.

Several districts of the central city of Homs also came under artillery and heavy machinegun fire by government forces, which left one person dead in the Khalidiyeh neighborhood, the watchdog added.

Surveillance aircraft were seen flying over the city, where 12 non-combatants were killed on Saturday.

In the southern province of Daraa, at least two soldiers were killed in festivities with rebel fighters, which broke out at dawn near the village of al-Sanmin, the watchdog said.

Hundreds of rebel fighters meanwhile remained holed up in Latakia province, a loyalist stronghold on the Mediterranean coast.

The army sent troop reinforcements to the mainly Alawite province where rebels have grouped in a Sunni Mohammedan enclave around the town of al-Heffa, the Observatory said.

Loyalist forces bombarded the town and surrounding villages for a sixth straight day, it said.

Nearly 60 soldiers have died since June 5 in battles with opposition fighters in the enclave, which lies some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Turkish border. At least 46 civilians and rebels have also been killed.

"The army is suffering its worst losses now in l-Heffa, as hundreds of rebels are holed up in this area of steep mountains," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.

He said that the resistance being put up in a province where the majority of the population are members of Assad's Alawi minority showed that the uprising against his regime was truly nationwide.

"The coast is no longer a safe area, and the whole country is now involved in the revolt," Abdel Rahman said.

In Idlib province, a rebel stronghold province in the northwest, thousands took part in a funeral procession in the town of Maaret al-Numan for nine of 13 civilians killed in shelling on Saturday, the Observatory said.
Posted by:Fred

#4  But it's violence, you see, and not a civil war. I know because I read right here a week or so ago about how UN officials are concerned that it might become a civil war if the violence isn't stopped, ie., if Pencilneck isn't a good boy and just gives up his power to whoever these rebels turn out to be. Surprising how these dictators fight to stay in power isn't it? Some of those civilian casualties must have been surprised.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2012-06-11 12:28  

#3  The term "civilian" obviously means just what the Syrian opposition chooses it to mean — neither more nor less:

Those killed since March last year comprised 9,862 civilians, 3,470 soldiers and 783 army deserters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog counts rebel fighters who are not deserters from the army as civilians.


It wouldn't surprise me if they've been staging massacres and blaming them on the Syrian regime - these are Sunni Arabs, after all. Remember the Muhammad Al Durrah incident?
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2012-06-11 10:18  

#2  That is not enough.
Posted by: bman   2012-06-11 09:49  

#1  other counts have the death toll at over 16k
Posted by: lord garth   2012-06-11 07:53  

00:00