The nature of war has changed, which is bleak news for Syria’s minorities

 Another pack of lies from Cockburn. [Also on Libya]. Isis are not dominating, they have just been thrown out of much of Northern Syria. They have much more in common with Assad than with those groups actually trying to overthrow him. They don't automatically kill non-Sunnis, they've been trying to collect taxes from Christians in their stronghold of Raqqa.

 "The jihadi groups that now dominate the armed opposition automatically kill non-Sunnis, who make up some 25 per cent of Syria’s population. In other words, at least five million Syrians have good reason to fear that they will be slaughtered if the rebels win the civil war."

 He finally seems to have acknowledged that the government is killing more people - for months he claimed that SOHR figures showed the opposite. This is also not true:
"The uprising of 2011 against President Bashar al-Assad was started by civil activists seeking an end to a cruel and corrupt authoritarian regime and the creation of a secular, legal and democratic society. But this option has long since disappeared, and for Western governments to pretend otherwise is to foster civil war rather than seeking to end it."