Assad takes a page out of Russia's book in his war against rebels
Assad's strategy of bombing cities, indiscriminate massacres, population expulsions and gaining territory mirrors that of his greatest foreign supporter's war against Chechnya.
By Zvi Bar'el

The tantalizing videos that Syrian citizens have been uploading to the internet, the reports of bombings on crowded living quarters in the city of Homs, the attack on the southern city of Dar’a, the large numbers of dead civilians, currently over sixty (twenty of whom died after the Syrian army disconnected the electricity to the quarter where the local hospital happens to be), are a testimony to Assad’s strategy that comes less than a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Damascus.

If there is one thing Assad learned from the Russians, it is the way in which they fought their war in Chechnya. A full-on campaign against rebels, bombing cities, indiscriminate massacres, population expulsions and finally gaining control of territory. This is the kind of warfare Assad is now deploying against the city of Homs, a key city and the third largest in Syria. A victory for Assad there, according to the Syrian regime, will bring about a turnaround they have been looking for.

Battles have been raging in smaller cities such as Idlib and Dara’a, as well as in large villages and in the suburbs of Damascus. Should the government gain control of Homs, it will likely influence the rest of the struggle in other parts of the country.

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