-- Iranian Basij and their Syrian Shabiha equivalents:

The Assad regime has imported the dreaded Gestapo-like bloodthirsty Iranian Basij who have trained regime-endorsed killing squads known as the brutalizing Shabiha, to roam at random committing wholesale massacres of townspeople.

These killers terrorize day and night with no accounting for their horrific crimes... their job only to exact regime vengeance and stoke mind-numbing fear against anyone accused of supporting the opposition. Those not immediately killed by the Shabiha are the unlucky ones.

The dead ending Shabiha have set up a string of torture centers in each Syrian town. International human rights organizations have received reports that the Shabiha have resorted to torture against children to extract damning information against their families. Waiting in the wings are para-military Shiite elements of Iraq and Iran who are determined to prevent the Assad regime from being toppled.