<blockquote>“Hardly a day goes by when our senses are not bludgeoned by some new outbreak of terrorism in the Middle East.  Despite our best efforts at making and keeping the peace, political, economic, and religious tensions often lead to unrest, violence, and riots.”
<p style="text-align: right;">-Jim Bakker in “Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse”</p>
</blockquote>

The head of UN peacekeeping has declared that Syria is now in a state of civil war.

“Clearly what is happening is that the government of Syria lost some large chunks of territory,” Herve Ladsous told reporters outside the UN in New York. Asked by a reporter if Syria was in a state of civil war, Ladsous said “Yes, I think we can say that.”

A group of UN monitors were pelted with rocks and shot at as they attempted to reach the town of Haffa in northern Syria. The town has been the site of an intense battle between rebels and government forces.

A commander of the Free Syrian Army told reporters they had been trying to evacuate civilians from the cities under shelling from government forces but that civilians at the city edges have been attacked by government troops.

“The situation is dire,” the commander told Reuters. “Forget the weapons, people need medicine and food.”

A US state department spokeswoman told reporters on Tuesday there was a real fear the Syrian government was organizing another massacre.