Pool parties and nights at opera as Syria burns

ON ONE hand, there are the (in Damascus, largely invisible) activists who are trying to bring down Bashar al Assad.

By the time I arrived, shelling, gunfire, and a spate of “sticky bombs” — handmade bombs taped to the bottom of a car at the height of rush hour — had spawned fear in the capital and solidified anger against the opposition, which the government claims is supported by “foreign interventionists”.

There were daily clashes in suburbs such as Douma and Barzeh, and, according to human-rights groups, there are as many as 35,000 people being held in Syrian detention.