75 Killed in Syrian Rebel Siege

Tragedy abound in Syria. At least 75 people on both sides were killed as rebels attempted to break President Bashar al-Assad’s months-long blockade on the Ghouta area, east of Damascus. Rami Abdurrahman of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that nearly 30 of the fighters were from the al Qaeda-linked rebels of the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, with the rest either from Iraq or the Syrian government forces. Meanwhile, the United Nations has called the refugee crisis stemming from the nearly three-year civil war the worst in a generation—even bigger than what followed the genocide in Rwanda. What’s more, a new report by the British-based thinktank the Oxford Research Group said more than 11,000 children have died in the conflict—including hundreds targeted by snipers.