World View: Syria Missile Strike Kills 80 Students Taking Exams

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:

• Syria: Missile strike kills 80 students taking exams at University of Aleppo
• Report: State Dept. believes Syria used chemical weapons
• New Kashmir clash kills Pakistani soldier

Syria: Missile strike kills 80 students taking exams at University of Aleppo

A missile strike, presumably from warplanes sent by the regime ofSyria’s president Bashar al-Assad, struck a building at University ofAleppo where hundreds of students were taking exams, killing 82 andinjuring 150 more. In a familiar refrain, the al-Assad regime saidthat the university students were killed not by warplanes but by “theterrorists,” its terms for the rebels. Over 60,000 people, almost allcivilians, have been killed in the Syrian conflict, mostly throughintentional slaughter by the al-Assad regime. BBC

Report: State Dept. believes Syria used chemical weapons

According to a report in Foreign Policy magazine, there is adeadly poison gas Agent 15 in the city of Homs on December 23.Activist and doctors on the ground in Homs have been circulatingevidence of the Dec. 23 incident over the past three weeks in anattempt to convince the international community of its veracity. Thereports said that the chemical agent was delivered by a tank shell andthat the range of symptoms varied based on the victim’s proximity tothe poison. However, shortly after the report appeared, the WhiteHouse issued a statement saying that the report “has not beenconsistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemicalweapons program.” At one point, the Administration indicated thatSyrian use of chemical weapons would bring a military response, butlater seemed to back off from the threat, and now merely says that

New Kashmir clash kills Pakistani soldier

On Wednesday, for the third time in two weeks, there have beenmilitary clashes between Pakistani and Indian forces across the Lineof Control (LoC) separating the two forces in Kashmir. (See “9-Jan-13 World View — New fighting between India and Pakistan in Kashmir”) This time, a Pakistanisoldier was killed, and a Pakistani army statement says that “Indiantroops again resorted to ceasefire violation and carried outunprovoked firing this evening at LoC.” Concern is rising thattensions are escalating, and some act may trigger a new Kashmir warbetween India and Pakistan. Dawn (Pakistan) / AFP

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