Blog 9: Religious Conflict

Syria Clashes and Bombing Mar Holiday Cease-Fire

There was a deadly bombing near a Damascus children’s playground in Lebanon; this started the first day of a cease-fire. The bombing near the children’s playground killed five people and injured more than thirty, including children. The Syria conflict practiced a four-day cease fire, mostly because of the most important Muslim holiday of the year. Id al-Adha is the Feast of Sacrifice; and with no violence occurring, protesters gathered in the streets all across Syria. The Syrian Army stated they would cease military operations for four days in respect to the holiday. Not everyone respected the cease-fire; there were reports of fighting at the start of the holiday. One neighborhood in the city of Homs reported being hit by six missiles. Another report stated that security forces had resorted to tear gas to control the violent protests. Protesters are angry at the cease-fire and angry at the government; the Syrian protest movement turned into a fight between the Sunni and Alawites. Commander, Arafat Mahmoud, suspects the Syrian Army was trying to regroup after losing checkpoints and chunks of the city of Aleppo. Mahmoud states that the Syrian Army “wants a cease-fire just to reinforce their bases.” Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and his opposition would rather overpower each other than to negotiate.

This article was about a bombing that happened because of a cease-fire attempt in Syria. The people of Syria are angry with the government and military and participate in violent protesting. The bombing that took place near the children’s playground in Lebanon was in a poor, mostly Sunni neighborhood. Previous attacks like this have been orchestrated by extremist organizations.  The idea of negotiating peace with the Syria conflict is not an effective strategy; there has been cease-fire attempts which only lead to more violence. The people do not want to negotiate, they want to fight and overpower one another.