Just one day after President Bashar Assad repeated his promises of reform in a high profile state TV interview, troops were in the streets attacking protesters again, killing at least three of them in the city of Homs.
Today’s killings come as a UN humanitarian team arrived in the country, and UN officials say the nationwide death toll since the protests began is at least 2,200. Though the UN team was advised to leave Homs over protests, they “did not come under fire.”
The UN reiterated calls for Syria to stop using violence against the civilian protesters, something Syrian officials have yet to address on state media. The official narrative is that any violence is the fault of the “armed terrorists” that are protesting, and the victims are always police.
Indeed, the SANA media outlet reported on what was called the “Syria is Fine tour” today, an effort by officials, in the wake of this month’s Hama massacre, to insist that the city is under control.