MSM finally reports on Syria massacre story I broke here yesterday

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In comments to my dairy yesterday BREAKING: Massacre in Homs Syria right now! 150 burnt corpses found, some Kossacks questioned whether my reports were accurate or whether that diary should have even been published. For example, InAntalya wrote:

Activists and Al Arabiya 'report' but (8+ / 0-)

no one else has. That might give you an indication of what the media think about the reliability of these reports.

He then went on to double down on his opinion by suspecting the opposition of massacring its own people:

If there was a 'massacre' (6+ / 0-)

it is just as possible that it was committed by rebel forces before or as they were forced out of the area by government forces.

There are many more media sources in the world than those you listed, some of which are very anti-Assad and even they often don't cover these 'reports' because they are known to be unreliable.

InAntalya based his opinion on his expertise. He said he knows

much much more about what is happening in Syria than the dumbass who writes these posts

Yesterday I suggested InAntalya and his supporters wait a day or so. Now we have these reports from the Washington Post, CNN and the SF Chronicle and I expect there will be others.

From today's Washington Post we have:

Brahimi issued his chilling prediction after one of the deadliest 24-hour periods in the conflict, which began in March 2011. Opposition groups that monitor the death toll said as many as 400 people — more than double the typical daily death toll — were killed Saturday. About half of them were civilians slain in an alleged mass killing carried out by government troops at a petrochemical university in central Syria, opposition groups reported.
...
On Saturday, the government announced that it was in control of Deir Baalba, a suburb of the central Syrian city of Homs, after having surrounded the rebel-held town about a month ago. Opposition groups, whose reports were murky and could not be independently verified, said government forces committed a massacre in the battle for the town.

Walid Faris, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Council of Homs, said by telephone that Deir Baalba is surrounded by villages populated by members of the Alawite sect of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. During the army counteroffensive, it was hit heavily by artillery shells and mortars, he said, and the rebel Free Syrian Army managed to clear a small evacuation route to get most civilians out of the conflict zone.

But some remained. As government troops moved back into Deir Baalba, Faris said, 150 to 180 people were rounded up and taken to a petrochemical university, where they were executed. Their bodies and houses were burned before dawn, he said. The count was based on reports from government soldiers sympathetic to the rebels and from residents of a nearby village, who heard the gunfire inside the university and saw the fire and smoke through binoculars, Faris said.

Other reports put the death toll higher. A statement on the Web site of the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists who monitor and report on the conflict, estimated that 220 people, including women and children, might have been executed.

Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report.

Four hours ago the SF Chronicle released:

Syrian Expatriates Organization (SEO) Shocked at Deaths of Over 400 Syrians
SEO is receiving reports of a heinous massacre of over 220 people by Assad regime forces in the town of Deir Ba’alba, near Homs. According to Al-Arabiya, on December 29 over 400 people were killed throughout Syria and 150 charred bodies were found in an abandoned school in Deir Ba’alba. Activists are also reporting that people were slaughtered with knives, including women and children in Deir Ba'alba's main square. The Syrian Army encircled Deir Ba’alba four days ago in a push to take control of the town. More...

And about the same time CNN ran with this:

(CNN) -- The stench of the burnt bodies was so potent, Abu Jafar said, he could smell it from 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away.
6:18 PM EST, Sun December 30, 2012
"It smells awful because the regime appears to have burnt so many bodies recently," the opposition activist said Sunday from the beleaguered city of Homs.

"Some cars arrived this morning and carried away dead bodies. We are not sure where."

Jafar's account comes a day after what may be the deadliest day yet in Syria's 21-month civil war, according to opposition figures.
...
At least 397 people were killed across the country Saturday, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. At least 143 deaths were reported Sunday, including 10 children.
Intense violence kills dozens in Syria

The LCC said Saturday's death toll included more than 200 people who were captured and "field executed" by Syrian soldiers in the Homs suburb of Deir Baalbeh after Syrian forces won a battle there.

The group's representative in Deir Baalbeh said he could only personally account for 27 deaths, but said a Syrian soldier who had been captured by rebels said government forces killed at least 200 people in the suburb.

The group posted video of several men's bodies lined up in a grassy field with wounds to the head, in what it claimed was footage taken by witnesses.

Jafar said he believes Deir Baalbeh was targeted "because it is the main gate to reach the Khaldiya neighborhood, which has been under the control of the rebels." More...

There is also EXTREMELY GRAPHIC VIDEO that show victims that have clearly been shot in the head.

Click here for a list of my other diaries on Syria