One Month of Syria's Ceasefire Celebrated with Regime Bombings

It is one month since the Syrian ceasefire was put into place. To celebrate, the Syrian army bombarded a village near Damascus, killing 5 civilians and wounding 18 others.
This assault brings to at least 30 the number of people killed by the Syrian army since the ceasefire took effect.
It seems cold comfort, therefore, to hear that two-thirds of the UN monitors are now in place in Syria.
Other bombardments this weekend have killed at least 9 others, including a child who was killed when his home was bombed, while the human rights observation group based in London report more than 20 killed.
Bashar al-Assad’s regime still does not officially recognize that the rebel cause is anything but a terrorist group, which they label as “probably al-Qaida,” trying to destabilize the country and that the bombings are their work, and not the regime’s.
The rebel leadership has responded that if al-Qaida is really now in Syria, it is because the government has invited them to help quash the rebellion, which is not terrorist but civilians trying to eliminate the dictatorial al-Assad regime.
Diplomatic efforts to make the Kofi Annan ceasefire work are not succeeding, but in Paris on Sunday, the Russian ambassador to France said that there is every reason to think that the Annan deal will work and that everyone ought to be trying to help it take effect. This sounds good until one remembers that Russia is still al-Assad’s staunchest ally.
This is not really news, because it simply reflects the stalemate on the ground, with Syrian civilians paying the price with their lives for the inability of the international community to stop al-Assad.
The real regional news this weekend is not good. Lebanon, which shares a border with Syria, has seen sectarian fighting break out between factions supporting al-Assad and the rebel movement. The skirmishes are isolated for the moment and no one is concerned that Lebanon will fall into a generalized state of guerrilla war, it is not good news for a region already as unstable as any on earth.
And, in what has been labeled as a prisoner exchange deal, two Turkish journalists detained by the Syrian regime for two months were released Saturday. They were subjected to psychological torture by having guns pointed at their heads, but were not tortured physically. European sources say al-Assad partisans were released in order to secure the journalists’ freedom, but there has been no official word on this.
Finally, Jordan is asking the Arab Gulf states to help pay for the more than 20,000 Syrian refugees now sheltered in Jordan.
Just another weekend in Syria…will it ever end? One can hope, I suppose.