Reports are circulating of another Syrian regime massacre yesterday in a small town near Hama, al-Qubayr. It appears that, as with the slaughter at Houla two weeks ago, more 100 were killed, including many women and children.

Tony Badran, fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, explains in his column today for NOW Lebanon that the massacres are “simply the most egregious installment in a pattern of deliberate sectarian killings. … The Syrian dictator is seeking to irredeemably tie the fate of the Alawites to his own, in a message aimed both at his sectarian community as well as at the international community.”