Speaking Sunday, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that the time had come to act on Syria. “The time has come to stop speaking and to act,” Ayalon said, by dispatching peacekeeping forces to the country to unseat President Bashar al-Assad, whom he said was committing a massacre against his citizens.
Report Sunday quoted rebel groups in Syria as saying that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had killed at least 52 civilians Saturday. Weekend reports said that there were heavy battles in the streets of Damascus Saturday night between rebels and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. The battles were said to be the fiercest since the beginning of the revolution against Assad more than a year ago. UN supervisors in Damascus said that the rebels were attacking army troops, and had bombed a power station supplying electricity to army bases, as well as six buses carrying troops.