• On Assad’s Doorstep
    The revolution is finally coming to the once quiet, now tense streets of inner Damascus.
    DAMASCUS, Syria — The eyes of the world are on Syria’s outlying towns and villages, where the rebels are organizing and where the bodies are piling up. As the U.N. Security Council prepares to meet to discuss the crisis, U.N. monitors are rushing to the town of Mazraat al-Qubeir to investigate claims that at least 78 civilians were killed in cold blood by President Bashar al-Assad’s militiamen. If true, the attack would be a grim echo to the gruesome massacre in the town of Houla last month.

    But as Syria’s periphery descends into chaos, observers may be missing a more subtle deterioration of Assad’s authority at the center of his regime. The Syrian capital of Damascus, whose commercial center has been seen as immune from the nationwide unrest, is increasingly turning on the Assad regime — and widening unrest in the heart of the city now appears to be only a matter of time.
    To read more: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/07/on_assad_s_doorstep