Massacre in Hama hastens the need to tackle Assad

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has praised his troops for ‘foiling the enemies’ of his country. Some enemies. 140 civilians are said to have died in a pre-Ramadan crackdown on protesters, adding to the toll of 1,600 civilians who have been killed since anti-government demonstrations began in mid-March. Details of the events in Hama are unclear because journalists have been kept out of Syria. But the pattern of events is familiar: protests against the Assad regime emerge; the army moves in to kill demonstrators; more protests then take place, which leads to more killings.

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Meanwhile, the international community stands by. Germany and Italy have called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, but as Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Today programme on Radio 4, “It is a very frustrating situation, the levers we have are very limited.”