Syria Feature: The Darayya "Massacre" and a Regime's "Slow, Steady Killing Strategy" (Los Angeles Times)
Monday, September 17, 2012 at 9:44
A mass grave in Darayya, August 2012
As he hid from soldiers in a field next to his neighborhood, a young man watched as a cat wandered down a street. Suddenly, it was shot dead. That's when Zuhair noticed the sniper on a nearby roof.
But a father and son walking along the street didn't see the gunman, Zuhair said. The sniper lowered his head and peered through his scope.
He shot the boy first. As the man tried to grab his son, who looked to be about 10, he was shot as well.
The two are among a reported 700 victims of snipers, shelling and summary executions, most of them men, since forces loyal to President Bashar Assad stormed the Damascus suburb of Dariya in late August, one in a growing list of Syrian towns and villages that briefly enter the world's spotlight, only to be replaced by another one when a new mass killing is committed.