Report: President Assad Wounded
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Al Arabiya Assad Asma Assad Russia Assad Assad Dead Assad wounded Assef Shawkat Attacks Bashar al-Assad bombing Dawoud Rawja government israel Israel News Jewish Jewish News Jews Leon Panetta Syria syria terrorist wife Wounded
Bashar and Asma Assad. Photo: wiki commons.
In the aftermath of the rebel bombing of Syrian government headquarters yesterday, president Bashar al-Assad’s whereabouts have been unconfirmed, with one source claiming the Syrian head of state was wounded in yesterday’s blast, according to a Guardian report.
Al Arabiya TV reported that Assad’s plane left Syria with unknown passengers, sparking suspicions that the Syrian president has fled his nation’s capitol after the attacks that killed three top government officials, including Assef Shawkat, the president’s brother in law and deputy head of armed forces. The bombing also killed Syrian minister of defense Dawoud Rawja, and wounded numerous other officials, in what was labeled by the Guardian as “the single worst loss for the government in 16 months of increasingly bloody struggle.”
Syria has been “rapidly spinning out of control” said US defense secretary Leon Panetta, since the attacks on Syria’s national security headquarters occurred yesterday morning. The Free Syrian Army, the main opposition group to the Assad regime, claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have included reported explosions at the Damascus headquarters of the Syrian army’s 4th division, an elite unit commanded by Assad’s brother.
Wild rumors have been circulating around many details of the insurgency, some claiming the Syrian army is wracked with mass defections, others that the capitol is torn with civilian rampages. Assad’s wife Asma is also rumored to have fled to Russia, though this information has not been confirmed.
3:18 pm
Forget China.
And forget Russia.
The Arab world has been rebuked now for the third time.
How many more would it take to realize that these countries are not their friends; that they feel none of the Arab pain.
As for the rest of us, it is time to see China and Russia as the totalitarian regimes they really are. Inherently, they cannot play a responsible role in the world community. And we should limit our business and political dealings with them accordingly.
9:41 pm
Russia learned its lesson in Kosovo: the West will always side with Islam against the Orthodox Church. How do you compare the 20,000 dead in Syria to the 500,000 dead and 4 million displaced in Darfur. Yes, Syria is a gangster state, but so is Saudi Arabia and all of the other Gulf States, not to mention Sudan and Mauritania where slavery is still actively practiced. The lesson learned in Libya, that liberalizing politically can lead to its downfall, is being learned in Syria. Iran has it right; if the Mullas want to stay in power, they need to exercise a strong hand. Russia is actually the moderating force here. The EU and the US are pushing Syria into a very bloody civil war. Syria has no cohesive nationality or historic figure around which to rally. Let Russia handle this, if they still can.