The Syria Carnage Continues while the World's Attention Is in Europe

The world has been tightly focused on the Ukraine crisis and the missing Malaysian Flight MH370, but the carnage in Syria goes on and on. Here's the latest news. ~~~~~ The French are celebrating the release of four of their journalists held 10 months in Syrian captivity. In 2013, Syria was the most dangerous place in the world for journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The conflict claimed the lives of at least 29 journalists in 2013, its annual report stated, taking the total number killed covering the war to at least 63, including some who died over the border in Lebanon or Turkey. CPJ research says : "The huge number of deaths in Syria does not tell the complete story of the danger there, given an unprecedented number of kidnappings....About 60 journalists were abducted at least briefly during the year and about 30 are currently missing." Jihad groups, particularly an al-Qaida-breakaway group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, are believed responsible for most kidnappings that have taken place since 2013. Government-backed militias, criminal gangs and more moderate rebel factions also have been involved, seeking everything from ransom to prisoner exchanges. The release of the four French men comes after three Spanish reporters held by the group were freed in March. ~~~~~ Meanwhile, violence continued Saturday in Syria, as rebel car bombings killed at least 10 people, officials and activists said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one car bomb killed at least four people in the city of Homs, in an area dominated by Alawites - the same sect as President Bashar al-Assad. State-run television also reported the bombing but did not immediately have a death toll. Earlier in the day, another car bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint near the government-controlled town of Salamiya killing at least six soldiers, activists said. And on Friday, a car bomb exploded outside a mosque in a pro-government district of Homs, killing 14 people in the latest violence in the war-torn city, state Syrian television reported. The bombing occurred as worshippers left the Bilal al-Habshi mosque on the edge of Akrama after attending Friday prayers and also wounded at least 50 people. The area, populated mainly by Alawites, members of al-Assad's minority sect, repeatedly has been targeted by car bombs. Opposition activists also reported the blast. The Syrian Observatory for Human rights said the explosion killed at least nine people, adding that the number likely would rise. The attack coincides with a crushing offensive by al-Assad forces in central Syria, leaving Homs as the last rebel stronghold in the central region not to have been retaken by al-Assad troops aided by Lebanese Hezbollah forces. ~~~~~ Earlier this week, the UN Envoy to Syria pleaded for both the rebel and al-Assad sides in Homs to re-enter negotiations, which were broken off in February. The UN envoy called the center of Homs "a theatre" of war and death. ~~~~~ And as reported here earlier in detail in the April 3rd blog, the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has passed the 1 million mark, rising from 18,000 just two years ago, making Lebanon the country with the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The total number of registered Syrian refugees in all countries is 2.58 million. Other nations with large populations of Syrian refugees include Jordan and Turkey. The United Nations has said that more than 100,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in Syria since the popular uprising spiraled into a civil war in 2011. UN staff in Lebanon register 2,500 new Syrian refugees every day, the UNHCR said. ~~~~~ Whether the world watches or has its attention focused elsewhere, the horrific civil war in Syria rolls on. There are no indications that Russia and its President, Vladimir Putin, or Iran and Hezbollah, are willing to let the Syrian people make their own decision about their future. And President Obama's abandonment of Middle East leadership in general, and Syrian leadership in particular, has made it impossible for local countries and leaders to make a decisive difference. This can clearly be seen as the frustration of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the leading Middle East sunni power lined up against al-Assad's shiites and their Russian, al-Qaida and Iranian keepers, recently surfaced when Saudi Arabia replaced its intelligence chief, who is widely seen as the architect of the Kingdom’s interventionist policy in the Syrian civil war. The government-owned Saudi Press Agency announced on Tuesday that prince Bandar bin Sultan had been “relieved of his post at his own request.” Here is how the Saudi Press Agency described the situation : " Bandar was born in 1946 to a concubine of crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, 12th son of Saudi monarch King Abdulaziz. In 1983, Bandar was appointed ambassador to the United States, a post he held until 2005. He developed numerous connections in Washington and rose to become a leading operator in Middle East affairs. In 2012, he was appointed director of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, the country’s primary intelligence organization. Since that time, he has been the primary planner of the Saudi hawkish policy on the Syrian civil war, which has been to openly support the rebel groups fighting to oust the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Saudi Arabia has supplied weapons, cash and intelligence to the Syrian rebels with Bandar as the country’s intelligence chief. But his once close relations with Washington went sour last year, when he described US President Obama’s refusal to launch military strikes on Syria as a 'major shift' in American Middle East policy. He also angered the US by criticizing its rapprochement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is Riyadh’s major regional adversary. Perhaps more important, Bandar probably underestimated the strength of the al-Assad administration and advised King Abdullah in 2012 that the Syrian government’s days were numbered. The stalemate in the Syrian civil war seems to have frustrated the Saudi government, which began gradually distancing itself from Bandar since January. The prince has spent most of 2014 in the United States and Morocco, ostensibly for 'medical treatment.'" According to Saudi government media, Bandar has been replaced "on an interim basis" by his deputy, Yousef al-Idrissi. Meanwhile, insiders say that the Syria file has been transferred to prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the kingdom’s minister of interior. But, Bandar remains secretary general of the National Security Council, an influential advisory board that directs Saudi Arabia’s national security and intelligence. ~~~~~ Dear readers, it remains to be seen whether the Saudi action can save a rapidly failing Syria rebel cause, which was probably doomed when it was infiltrated in late 2012 by al-Qaida islamic jihadists, making it almost impossible for the West to support the rebels militarily. It remains, also, to be answered whether Putin's Russia and Iran deliberately planted al-Qaida terrorists in the rebel ranks for just that reason. And it also remains for history to judge the Obama decisions that have left innocent Syrian blood on his administration's hands -- for if Obama had acted quickly, the Syrian civil war would never have escalated to its present viciously murderous level.