Arab League Suspends Syria Mission Over Increasing Violence

You know things are really bad in Syria when Hamas leaders no longer consider it safe for them to stick around in Damascus despite the cordial relations between Bashar al-Assad and the terror group.

Now, the Arab League's observer mission to try and reduce the level of violence is suspending its operations because the situation is too violent for them to contend with. Once again, Assad's regime blames terrorists and external forces for the violence and attacks, even as his own regime continues targeting civilians throughout the country:

The move comes just days after President Bashar al-Assad's government agreed to a one-month extension of the mission, which began December 26.

The mission is part of a peace initiative in Syria. The 22-member group has called on al-Assad's regime to stop violence against civilians, free political detainees, remove tanks and weapons from cities and allow outsiders -- including the international news media -- to travel freely in Syria.

The mission has been monitoring government activities in various hotspots. In the last two days, opposition activists reported scores of deaths, with one group, the Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported 135 deaths Thursday and Friday.

Violence continued to rage on Saturday as an "armed terrorist group" killed seven soldiers in an attack Saturday, state-run media reported.

The Syrian Arab News Agency said the attackers fired at a bus in the Damascus countryside and killed the soldiers, one of whom was a first lieutenant. They were traveling between the towns of Douma and Adra.

Terrorists were also blamed for an explosion on an oil pipeline in northeastern Deir Ezzor province, SANA said, quoting a source at the country's oil ministry.

The SANA report said production wasn't affected by the attack but that 2,000 barrels of oil were lost. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and crews began repair work. It said the pipeline had been attacked before.

The LCC confirmed a pipeline explosion and said 12 people were killed Saturday, eight of them were killed in the restive city of Homs.

Consider also that security forces opened fire on mourners during a funeral procession with live ammo. That's not something that can go unnoticed by Syrians throughout the country; that's why the regime is increasingly under pressure from within the country. Assad has no regard for the lives of his own countrymen; he's only concerned about continuing the regime at any costs and crushing the opposition according to the Hama rules set in place by his father. Crush the opposition and hear the lamentations of those whose lives he's crushed.

The Arab League has little leverage in trying to prod Assad to accept reforms. Assad continues claiming that he's engaged in reforms, but his regime is under ongoing attack from terrorists and external elements (an excuse frequently given by other Arab League regimes in their own crackdowns against protesters during the Arab Spring). Thus, there's no way that the Arab League plan will get accepted by Assad. Assad simply wont give up power, even if it's on paper only.

Assad has repeatedly claimed to have given amnesty to those who have protested against the regime, released prisoners, etc., but the murderous attacks continue and the indefinite detentions and deprivations of rights continue throughout Syria at the hands of Assad's loyalists. If Assad's security forces are taking casualties, its increasingly at the hands of those security forces who have defected to the opposition and are no longer willing to murder fellow Syrians for Assad to remain in power.