The exception was Fuah and Kefraya, two Shiite villages whose roughly 17,000 residents have remained, even under a devastating blockade, loyal to the government. — Mohammad Hassan Taqi, head of the towns’ crisis committee“A massacre is inevitable — maybe not for everyone, but certainly for the young men. The plight of these two Shiite towns says much about how Syria’s sectarian mosaic has been fractured since the onset of the war. The Sunni villages have the advantage of higher terrain, granting rebel snipers a commanding view against which barricades can offer little protection. Taqi was one of more than a dozen current and recent residents of Fuah reached by telephone or through social media.

Source: Los Angeles Times September 23, 2016 10:00 UTC