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Inside Syria's Death Zone: Assad's Regime Hunts People in Homs

(Der Spiegel-Germany) The regime in Damascus is using snipers to hunt down its own people. Beginning in the afternoon and continuing throughout the night, the wide street that separates the Khalidiya and Bayada neighborhoods in Homs becomes a death zone. Snipers working for Syrian intelligence, who are nothing more than death squads, and the Shabiha killers, mercenaries who are paid daily wages and often earn a little extra income by robbing their victims, shoot at anything that moves. In Homs, anywhere from five to 15 people die every day, most as the victims of snipers. The insurgents have counted more than 200 sniper positions in Homs, from which people are being shot arbitrarily and without warning - not because they are protesting, but merely because they are there. Some 200 to 300 tanks of the "Assad army" have been posted outside Homs for weeks. Residents anticipate an attack any day now. Everyone wonders what is making Assad hesitate.
2011-12-26 00:00:00
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