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War Is Marching to Damascus
(Independent-UK) Patrick Cockburn - Damascus feels like a city expecting the worst to happen and seeing no way to avoid it. Christians are fearful and are all too aware of what happened to their co-religionists in Iraq after 2003. The present Syrian government may be trying to stir up sectarian strife in order to ensure that the minorities - Alawite, Christian, Druze and Kurd - remain on its side. But it did not invent these communal differences. One diplomat long resident in Damascus said the YouTube pictures posted by the opposition are "deceptive." "When they show anti-government demonstrations, the activists always edit out the bit where the crowd shouts 'death to the Alawites!'" Weapons from Saudi Arabia are now reported to be reaching the insurgents. Iraqi officials say that al-Qaeda fighters in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, notorious for massacring Shia villagers and travelers, have headed back to Syria.