The Official PH, WTF SYRIA? Thread.. updated regularly

[supadupac]

If you do not know what is going on.. here's a quick summary.. as for everything, articles and pictures will be posted as announced..

The 2011–2012 Syrian uprising is an ongoing internal conflict in Syria. It is a part of the wider Arab Spring which began in December 2010, a wave of social upheaval throughout the Arab World demanding greater political freedom and an end to autocracy. Public demonstrations began on 26 January 2011, and developed into a nationwide uprising, with protesters demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, the overthrow of the government, and an end to nearly five decades of Ba’ath party rule.

As protests continued, the Syrian government began deploying the Syrian army as a means to quell the uprising, and several cities have been besieged. According to witness accounts, soldiers who have refused to open fire against civilians were summarily executed by the Syrian Army. The Syrian government denied the reports of defections and blamed "armed gangs" for causing trouble. Since summer 2011, civilians and army defectors formed fighting units, which began an insurgency campaign against the Syrian regular army. As a result violent clashes began across the country, increasing by the end of the year and the insurgents unified under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, showing increasingly organized fighting patterns.

Verification of death-tolls and specific events have been hard to verify due to the Syrian government putting restrictions on foreign journalists. According to the UN and other sources, since the beginning of the uprising, up to 8,000 people, including 1,800–2,800 armed combatants, have been killed in total,many more injured, and tens of thousands of protesters have been imprisoned. Over 400 children have been killed as well. Another 400 children have been reportedly arrested and tortured in Syrian prisons. Additionally, over 600 detainees and political prisoners have died under torture. A global campaigning organization said in July 2011 that over 3,000 people have gone missing since the start of the uprising.

[Phoenixfire]

I so sick of this Middle East sh|t, always driving up &^%$@&$# gas prices or killing innocent people with their cowardy acts. They've been at war since the days of Moses and they're not going to stop any time soon, so somebody do the world a favor and make that place an ocean.