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Source: http://www.economist.com/node/18988896
Laying Waste to Syria's Third-Largest City
(Economist-UK) At least 33 residents of Homs have been killed by security forces and government thugs in recent days. Several were shot at funerals. Residents have also reported indiscriminate shooting from unmarked, speeding cars. Gangs are a useful tool for the regime. They allow Syrian officials to deny responsibility for some of the worst killings. Perhaps most important, the gangs raise the specter of sectarian war. Yet fears of a sectarian meltdown are overblown. Anti-regime protests do not spring from religious differences. Indeed, it has been striking how ecumenical the uprising in Syria has so far been. Sunnis have called on Christians, Alawites and other minorities to join them on the streets.