(Click on Image to Enlarge)Syria Splits Along Sectarian Lines, Shaking Mideast -- McClatchy News
NEAR QUSAYR, Syria — Resting in a safe house south of the shell-battered city of Homs, Syrian rebel Abu Abdo at first framed the conflict convulsing his country as a war between the Sunni Muslim majority and the authoritarian regime of President Bashar Assad.
Then the leather-jacketed member of the local Free Syrian Army added, "The majority of the Shiites and Alawites are with the government."
Abdo's comments underscored how sectarian divisions are hardening a year after the outbreak of the uprising against Assad, whose scorched-earth crackdown on what began as peaceful protests for democratic reform has ignited a Sunni-dominated insurgency that's drawing in Sunni jihadis from beyond Syria's borders.
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My Comment: This is the nightmare scenario that we got a taste of when Iraq's Sunni - Shiite factions went to war against each other in 2007 .... which fortunately was stopped by superior U.S. military firepower. But while the Americans were able to stop the battle .... both Islamic groups have a long and bloody history that goes back centuries .... and one that has never been resolved. As Syria's sectarian civil war escalates, these divisions are becoming even more evident, and with no super -power presence to dampen this centuries long blood conflict .... who can tell how this will eventually resolve itself. My guess .... another long and bloody Middle East war with religion being the main cause.