August 2, 2011 | Quote

Obama ‘Horrified’ as Syrian Forces Kill at Least 80 in Hama

“What the regime is facing here is a tribal insurrection in the east stretching from the north in Deir al- Zor, through the middle in Albu Kamal,” Tony Badran, a research fellow with the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies,” told The Jerusalem Post by email.

The two eastern cities form the heart of Syria’s oil industry. Badran said that if they join the uprising launched in the flashpoint city of Deraa in the south, “and adding Hama and Homs in the middle, then potentially the country could be geographically cut in half.”