Syrian rebels no heroes

Syria is heading toward a civil war something sadly no one has yet could convincingly predict. The situation on the ground remains as grim as ever with growing number of a civilian death toll reaching to alarmingly high levels.

Syria is not a country where unpopular ruler and his combat army are killing people demanding freedom in peaceful demonstrations. The bloody violence there is largely due to a ruthless battle between army of the Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad and thousands of ex-army soldiers and officers, estimated at 10,000 or so.

What makes Assad more brutal than his opponents is his army's indiscriminate shelling and ruthless pursuit of rebels without particular concern for civilian causalities. Witnesses could recount hundreds of episodes in which the regime's army had been heavily shelling and bombing highly populated areas in a bid to root out a dozen militants. Reports of international institutions, including the UN, suggested that killings of women and children are rampant and detained people have been subject to torture, some even being tortured to death.

The video I posted here clearly shows how shelling wreaks havoc a district in Syria's central province of Homs. There is no indication whether or not civilians are still living in those residences yet similar situations are true for many cities where Assad's army has kept pounding for over a year. Activists say the death toll has already reached to 13,000 and nearly half a million people have been internally displaced with some fleeing to neighboring countries such as Jordan and Turkey.

I would like to highlight another story, in which Syrian rebels sets up a British journalist and his colleagues to be killed by the regime's army in Syria near the Lebanese border. This, rebels planned, would draw international condemnation against Assad. 

What existing ideology, religion or culture would condone such a deplorable act and a killing of innocent civilians to make an unfair and certainly immoral gain against your opponent. This is not to say that all Syrian rebels are heartless as those militants but this is only one small part of many "not-so-good stories" we have heard about them.

Western nations, activists and the media had also glorified rebels in Libya and we all had witnessed how they eventually treated with late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

While the world has fixed its gaze to see how the battle turns out in upcoming weeks in Syria and if the rebels have a chance to pick up a momentum out of this deadly stalemate to unseat Assad and his brutal regime, my concern is how many more civilians will be killed in the course of fighting for a palace in Damascus. 

Instead of working hell-bent to oust Assad, which is a desirable yet no easy task, major powers including Turkey and Qatar, should focus to secure the ceasefire and work out a political solution that works best for the both sides. Plan proposed by the UN mediator Kofi Annan was the best one but neither Russia nor Turkey were successful, even eager, in urging Assad and the rebels to stop fighting.