In conflict the first casualty is the truth, they say. We only have fragmentated bit of news, even from the rebel areas as well. Is rape a big problem in these areas? I remember when a woman journalist in Cairo was gang raped during the tumults there with, I think, both sides milling around.

I saw it too, and it was almost incomprehensible to see her getting pulled out again, with no hope of saftey - you just sat there hopping in the chair with this incredible urge to Do something, and you cannot do a bloody thing!

I guess that this is the kind of thing that make some of us support the coalition, true or not, right or not. That situation is certainly as complex as they come, and I wonder if there are any right answers in terms of intervention? I am thinking of the whole area.

It is probably first time that we see anything from a conflict that is not wholly controlled by mililitary. And it certainly makes it all horribly real.