THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Diplomats try again for peace but on the ground in Syria it is now war
As his helicopter gunships rained death from the skies and his artillery pounded villages with rebel sympathies, President Bashar al-Assad stated the obvious: Syria is at war.
"When one is in a state of war, all our policies and capabilities must be used to secure victory," he told his cabinet, in the safety of his heavily guarded palace in the centre of his capital Damascus. It appeared to be an attempt to stiffen the resolve of his followers, most of who[m] must now understand that the regime has decided to fight to the end, no matter how bloody or horrible that is. He pledged to eliminate "terrorists", and rejected hopes of a peace plan, which he called a foreign effort to impose a solution on Syria.
It has been obvious for a long time that much of Syria is effectively in a state of civil war. But last week there was a dangerous sense of escalation, with much of the north and west of the country now clearly out of government hands and perhaps as many as 100 people being killed every day.
Fighting spread into the capital, with rebels attacking in the suburbs. They claimed to have formed a battalion only four miles from where Assad made his announcement. Until last month, Damascus had been almost untroubled by armed clashes. » | Nick Meo | Saturday, June 30, 2012
