A.J. Bornhorst: War

A.J. Bornhorst

                The article that I read was called “Syrian Civil War reaches Damascus”.  On Thursday, the capital of Syria became under siege and there have been an ongoing fight between the Syrian government and the rebels.  There have been raids on the edge of Damascus, Syria’s capital.  There have been reports that the rebel forces killed or wounded ten government troops at a military checkpoint on the Daraa-Damascus highway.  The same group also stated that atleast 41 people were killed during the fighting in Damascus on Wednesday.  The Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Miqdad, spoke in Damascus and accused Turkey for providing the fire arms to the Syrian rebels “opposed to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.”  During his speech, Minister Faisal Miqdad stated “The aspects that have fueld this crisis are well known.  Armed groups, terrorist groups, support by regional circles including the dangerous support by Turkey of the terrorist gangs, of providing these with sophisticated weapons and of giving each terrorst in the world, including al-Qaida, free access to Turkey to come to Syria.”  In response to this being said, United States officials and Turkish officials held their first planning meeting to coordinate military and other actioncs in response to the responses to the Syrian crises.  This article also  touched on the fact that there was a death of a Japanese journalist who was killed earlier in the week while getting caught in the middle of a gun fight among rebels and the government.  The significance of this event is that Syria has a serious problem with the Civil War going on in their country when journalists get caught in the crossfire.