the miraculous claims of the Syrian armed opposition

It is quite amazing that Western media still manage to reproduce verbatim without any critical scrutiny the bizarre claims of the Syrian armed groups:  "The combat of the past three days, including nearly continuous artillery shelling from the army, has left scores of civilians dead, he said, estimating the toll at 64 civilians killed and more than 500 wounded..." Whenever they are engaged in combat, they produce claims of death and injury that seem to only affect civilians.  Miracuslously, the fighters never seem to suffer casualties by their claims.  If you follow the claims of the armed groups in Western media, you reach this conclusion: that bombs and bullets of the Syrian regime only kill and injure civilians, while bombs and bullets of the armed groups only kill and injure regime soldiers (and shabbihah--don't forget).  Who in his right mind would believe those claims--I mean, other than Anne Barnard?