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[Ya-ta Boy]

...crackdown feared

BEIRUT � Armed men killed 120 Syrian security forces and torched government buildings Monday in a northern region where troops have unleashed deadly assaults on protesters for days, Syria said. The government vowed to respond "decisively," hinting at an even more brutal crackdown by a regime known for ruthlessly crushing dissent.

If confirmed, the attack in the north would be a turning point in what so far has largely been a peaceful uprising threatening the 40-year rule of President Bashar Assad and his family.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110606/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

The article mentions a possible mutiny in the army. That seems most likely, since who else would have the weapons to take on an army? Something that caught my eye was that the incident happened 12 miles from the Turkish border. I guess that grabbed me because someone wrote recently: all the other countries in the area are imploding, but Syria has the capacity to explode.

At the other end of the country, 20 civilians were killed at the Israeli border.
Assad's decision to allow pro-Palestinian protesters to storm the Israeli border twice in recent weeks indicates he may be trying to deflect focus from a serious crisis at home, and possibly divert international attention from a new crackdown. State television broadly carried Sunday's protest at the Golan Heights to the south frontier, which left as many as 23 people dead in fighting with Israeli forces, but it has not carried any footage of the protest, crackdown or ambush at the northern edge of Syria.

[caniff]

This is all going to script if you're a 2012 doomsday prognosticator.

(Until it doesn't occur, then you'll have to find a reason why it didn't happen to maintain your flock.)

[Ya-ta Boy]

I may have been punked by a Middle Eastern dictator. The only follow-ups on this story have said the gov't hasn't provided any evidence the incident happened.

[Ya-ta Boy]

AP to the rescue:

"People were struck by fear and panic after the government statements last night, it's clear they are preparing for a major massacre," he said.

Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian dissident and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University, said the scale of the mutiny was unknown.

Ziadeh said the Syrian army was a strong institution "but in the end, the army is from the people. The outrage over the killings is growing and the longer it goes on the more deserters we're going to see," he said.

An alleged army deserter identifying himself as Lt. Abdul-Razzaq Tlass appeared on the Al-Jazeera television network Tuesday, saying he was deserting because of the regime's "crimes" all over the country. He called on other officers to protect protesters against the regime.

"Remember your duties," added Tlass, who shares a last name with a former defense minister and said he was from the town of Rastan in central Syria. The name Tlass is common among Syrian officers from Rastan � which has also come under deadly government bombardment in recent days.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110607/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria