The main water supply to the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, has been cut off by government troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
More than three million residents of Aleppo lost access to their drinking water after the main water pipeline was destroyed in an airstrike by government forces, according to Ausama Monajed, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council. "Floods swept through neighborhoods, drowning many houses and commercial establishments,” Monajed said.
The Syrian government, however, claimed that rebel forces were to blame for the bursting pipe. A third account said rebel forces were trying to cut off food and water to soldiers inside the city. Air strikes by regime attack helicopters leveled entire blocks of residential apartment buildings, and civilians died as heavy artillery shelled neighborhoods in Hanano.
As the fighting intensified, and government troops beseiged southern Damascus, three Syrian rockets also hit the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim on Saturday, killing a five-year-old girl. The Katyusha rockets smashed through the wall of a home, instantly killing the little girl.
"So what?” shrugged one Israeli Arab source who spoke exclusively with Arutz Sheva on condition of anonymity Sunday morning. “So far, only 23,000 are dead. Assad's father [the late President Hafez al-Assad] killed even more – 40,000. It never bothered him in the slightest. This can go on for months. The Russians are involved, and Syria is their only gateway to the Middle East. Bashar [al-Assad] knows he cannot lose with their backing.”
Other observers suggested it is still possible Assad might fall -- but the motivation behind the entire revolution that has transformed into a full-scale civil war is still anyone's guess. According to 71-year-old French surgeon Jacques Beres, who co-founded Doctors without Borders and who had just returned to France from a two-week stint in Aleppo, "It's really something strange to see. They are directly saying that they aren't interested in Bashar al-Assad's fall, but are thinking about how to take power afterwards and set up an Islamic state with Shari'a law to become part of the world Emirate,” he told reporters.
For weeks, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been operating on behalf of Syrian government forces in Syria – and Assad has been insisting that Al Qaeda terrorists have been involved on behalf of rebel forces. As in the Libyan revolution, the objective truth is impossible to ferret out, since journalists have long been barred from entering Syria, let alone operating freely in the country, and conditions have become too dangerous even for United Nations monitors.