Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Rebels have begun targeting Iranians in Syria amid a sharp
escalation in bloodshed in the war against President Bashar Assad.

Syrian rebels abducted five Iranians in the central region on Dec.
20.

Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition reported the death of 111 people — 250 over 48
hours — in attacks by the Assad regime on Dec. 20 both in Homs as well as
in the Idlib province near the border with Turkey.

The Iranians were identified as engineers who worked in the
Islamist-dominated city of Homs, deemed the stronghold of the rebels.

“We demand their immediate release,” the Iranian embassy in Damascus
said on Dec. 21.

This marked the first report of Iranians being targeted by the rebel
movement. Teheran has been identified as the leading supporter of the Assad
regime and sent thousands of fighters to quell the revolt.

The Iranian embassy did not say what the engineers were doing in Homs.

The Syrian Army and security forces have intensified operations in Homs and
other nearby cities believed dominated by the opposition Muslim Brotherhood.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in an assertion echoed by France, said this marked the “bloodiest day of the
Syrian revolution.”

“There was a massacre of an unprecedented scale in Syria on Tuesday
[Dec. 20],” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

The Syrian Observatory said rebels attacked Syrian Army forces in Idlib
and damaged or destroyed 17 vehicles. The opposition group said rebels also
killed Assad troops on Dec. 20 in the southern province of Dera.

  Bashar Assad, Damascus, Dera, Homs, Idlib, Muslim Brotherhood, opposition reports ‘massacre’ of 111, Syrian rebel forces abduct Iranians, Teheran