Syria army 'storms' rebel town Qusair

[Sunlei]

Syrian government forces are storming the rebel stronghold of Qusair, with state TV saying troops now control the town centre.

Fighting has gone on around the town, near the Lebanese border, for weeks

Opposition groups say militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement are fighting alongside government forces.

Syrian opposition activists said government air strikes and heavy shelling on Sunday had killed at least 30 people in Qusair, including 16 rebel fighters.

State TV said that troops had taken over buildings in the centre, including the town hall, and were now chasing out "terrorists" - its term for rebel fighters.

Earlier, Rami Abdel Rahman, of UK-based activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said troops were advancing from the south and Hezbollah fighters were "playing a central role".

"Soldiers and tanks are trying to advance into the town, the rebel forces are attempting to push them back," he told AFP news agency.

In another development, the Lebanese National News Agency reported that eight Soviet-made Grad rockets had struck hit the north-eastern town of Hermel.

Without confirming the shipment, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the supply of missiles to Syria did not break any international rules.

Russia has consistently opposed any international intervention in Syria, along the lines of the Libyan conflict in 2011.

The UN said last week that the death toll in Syria had reached at least 80,000 since the conflict began in March 2011. Activists said the number could be as high as 120,000.

link to story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22586378

who are and what are the names of Russias military sales Corp. ? someones makes a fortune in profits, on the graves of 80,000 people.

[Igel]

1. You make it sound like only one side has weapons and is fighting.

The "rebel" group that executed captured Syrian soldiers?

That's part of the death toll.

When a bomb goes off against a Syrian government official and kills bystanders? They're dead.

When there's an insurgency and a neighborhood becomes the front lines as the rebels advance, it's not just government bullets that rip through flesh and kill.

I wonder which country provided those weapons that brought death to Syrian citizens? I wonder which country figures it's going to benefit in Realpolitik terms from Assad's removal? Or from having their personal group of rebels gain power.

Assad is evil now. Yet 6 years ago the same Assad was billed as a reformer that America could work with and attempts to isolate him and cause him to change policies and open up his government were met with scorn by some Americans.

Who do you think figured they were going to benefit in political terms from playing that kind of game with international politics and in so doing plausibly helped produce the current situation?

At the same time, you have to realize that most of the "rebels" are Sunnis. Something upset the balance in Syria, something let the armed groups get weapons and gain power. A lot of Sunni groups were sheltered in the parts of Syria that are most vehemently anti-Assad. In a neighboring country, they're virulently anti-Shiite, as they were then. Now, in Syria, they're virulenty anti-Shiite. The strict analogy goes a long way. Yet we don't like it. Instead, we have nebulously good "rebels" which periodically do horrendous things. Immediately, those doing such things are reclassified as "other," allowing the purity of the "rebels" to be upheld.

It's a silly game, just like most video games are. However, video games kill fewer people.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

2. It was all part of the gameplan from the beggining, when we called him a reformer

we were heavily involved elsewhere and couldn't focus on Syria.