Is civil war breaking out in Syria?

The government vows to retaliate after claiming that armed gangs killed dozens of security personnel, raising fears that Syria's uprising may turn into a war

Syrian children carry images of a 13-year-old boy whose death by torture invigorated a protest that may be morphing into an armed rebellion.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Murad Sezer)

The Syrian government said Monday that armed protesters had killed 120 police and security officers in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour, near the Turkish border. If true, this would amount to a significant escalation — up to now, there have only been isolated reports of pro-democracy demonstrators fighting back against security forces. Human rights groups say Syrian security forces have killed more than 1,000 people in an attempt to end an 11-week uprising. Has President Bashar al-Assad's brutal repression turned a peaceful protest movement into an armed rebellion? (Watch an Al Jazeera report about the situation.)

Yes, this could be the start of a civil war: Syria has reached a turning point, says James M. Dorsey at Al Arabiya. Assad is preparing what will surely be a violent response, calling the rival fighters terrorists, and describing the incident a massacre. Whatever he does next is bound to "constitute a dramatic escalation," and that will only speed up the transformation of "peaceful mass anti-government protests into an armed insurrection."

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