Islamists kill 15 Alawite and Druze Civilians in Syria
Activists say 15 Alawite and Druze civilians have been killed by Islamist rebels in the central city of Adra, as attacks against minority groups become more frequent.
“Many cities in Syria have become segregated along sectarian lines but Adra, strategically important as one of the rebels’ only routes into Damascus, has mostly resisted that,” Reuters reports. “Witnesses, activists and Syrian state media accused the Islamic Front, an alliance of several large rebel groups, and the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra front of carrying out the attacks.”
One Adra resident “who said she was too frightened to say what religious minority she was from, told Reuters armed men from the Islamic Front and the Nusra Front entered her family’s house around 3 a.m. on Thursday and took her son. The militants said her son would be returned, but he was still missing on Thursday afternoon.”
Islamist Wave Is Driving Out Syria’s Revolutionaries
The Huffington Post’s Joshua Hersh reports on Islamic extremists eclipsing Syria’s original non-violent revolutionaries.
“Lately, something has changed. A different kind of revolutionary fighter flooded parts of the north where Assad’s forces were already defeated. They have set up random checkpoints and demanded strict adherence to Islamic religious law, targeting not just Westerners, but Syrians, too,” he writes from Gaziantep.
“Many of them are Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida: people al-Abdo doesn’t recognize from other regions, even other countries. They have threatened journalists and challenged the loose band of more secular fighters known as the Free Syrian Army. Abductions of Syrian activists, once rare, happen at a rate of two or three a day.”
U.N. Confirms Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria
In a highly anticipated report, the U.N. has finally confirmed that chemical weapons were used against Syrian civilians.
“The case that was most clear to inspectors was an August incident near the capital, Damascus,” CNN reports.
“‘The United Nations Mission collected clear and convincing evidence that chemical weapons were used also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale in the Ghouta area of Damascus on 21 August 2013,’ read the 82-page report, which was released on Thursday.
“Blood and urine samples from patients there tested positive for sarin and sarin signatures, it found. Anti-government activist groups say more than 1,300 people were killed in the attack in Ghouta, many of them women and children.”
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