Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's
Leveler of Latakia...
regime erupted in March, a rights group said.
Local Coordination Committees said that Syrian security forces rubbed out 25 civilians in Homs, Daraa, Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, Reef Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
, and Idlib.
Meanwhile,
...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!...
Thousands of people on Saturday attended prayers in memory of the 44 people killed by jacket wallahs in Syria's capital as charge and counter-charge swirled over who was behind the attacks.
The funeral prayers, at Damascus's central Omayyad Mosque, came as an Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
delegation met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem to discuss the arrival of a team to oversee a deal aimed at ending nine months of bloodshed.
Mourners prayed before flag-draped coffins, while a crowd outside waved portraits of embattled President Bashir al-Assad and banners of the ruling Baath party as police stood watch.
Religious Affairs Minister Abdel Sattar al-Sayyed read a statement from Christian and Mohammedan religious leaders "denouncing the criminal attacks on Friday... and the murder, destruction and sabotage," part of a "dangerous plot against Syria."
"We call upon the Syrian people to be aware that Syria is being targeted, and affirm that we stand with them in the face of this plot. We reject any sort of extremism represented by terrorist organization."
The nature of that "terrorism" was hotly debated on Saturday, amid conflicting claims about who carried out the bombings.
Within minutes of the Friday morning kabooms, state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said initial enquiries held al-Qaeda responsible.
Not long afterwards, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad said "this is the gift we get from the gunnies and al-Qaeda."
However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
the government did not release details on how it reached such a conclusion so quickly.
Later on Friday, the opposition accused the government itself of carrying out the attacks.
Syria says more than 2,000 security force personnel have been killed in attacks by rebels since March.
There was no let-up in the bloodshed on Friday with human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of
freedomat the convenience of the state...
activists reporting at least 21 civilians killed, most of them by security forces.