Prophecy being fulfilled day by day

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from [being] a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.” Isaiah 17:1

The growing power of a rebel army has seen control of the Syrian capital of Damascus split between rival gunmen fighting for or against President Bashar Assad. Two days of bloody carnage in which at least 74 people have died has come as the rebel force – the Syrian Free Army – steps up its mission to take control of the streets from government forces.

No go area for government soldiers: A Syrian soldier, who has defected to join the Free Syrian Army, brandishes a rifle and waves a Syrian independence flag in the Saqba istrict of Damascus

‘We had a big battle here earlier this month,’ a Damascus schoolteacher, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals, told The Times. ’For the past 11 days this has been free Syria. All they can do now is cut the electricity and the water an disrupt the phone. It just goes to show how weak they are.’

The head of Arab League observers in Syria said in a statement that violence in the country has spiked over the past few days. Sudanese General Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi said the cities of Homs, Hama and Idlib have all witnessed a ‘very high escalation’ in violence since Tuesday.

A ‘fierce military campaign’ was also under way in the Hamadiyeh district of Hama since the early hours of Friday, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other activists.

However, the rebel surge has caused a spike in deaths that has claimed the lives of women and children as well as soldiers. In the besieged city of Homs forces loyal to President Bashar Assad shelled homes and fired on crowds with machine guns in a dramatic escalation of violence yesterday, according to activists.

Video of the massacre, posted online by activists, showed the bodies of five small children, five women of varying ages, and a man, all bloodied and piled on beds.

It appears to be inside an apartment after a building was hit in the Karm el-Zaytoun neighbourhood of the city. A narrator said an entire family had been ‘slaughtered’.

The Syrian uprising, which began last March with mostly peaceful protests, has become increasingly violent in recent months as army defectors clash with government forces and some protesters take up arms to protect themselves.

The violence has inflamed the sectarian divide in the country, where members of Assad’s Alawite sect dominate the regime despite a Sunni Muslim majority. source – Daily Mail UK