[hankbrown]

Hama Rules

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

In February 1982 the secular Syrian government of President Hafez al-Assad faced a mortal threat from Islamic extremists, who sought to topple the Assad regime. How did it respond? President Assad identified the rebellion as emanating from Syria's fourth-largest city — Hama — and he literally leveled it, pounding the fundamentalist neighborhoods with artillery for days. Once the guns fell silent, he plowed up the rubble and bulldozed it flat, into vast parking lots. Amnesty International estimated that 10,000 to 25,000 Syrians, mostly civilians, were killed in the merciless crackdown. Syria has not had a Muslim extremist problem since.

[SJackson]

Friedman would likely know. I was under the impression he left the ruins for awhile as a warning. Rarely mentioned are the many reporte that, after reducing the city to rubble and murdering anyone who could be found, Assad used cyanide gas amid the ruins to assure there were no survivors.