U.S.: Assad must go. Five killed at funeral for assassinated Syrian Kurdish leader

We're keeping a very close eye on Syria right now for the reasons stated before:

Assad: Syria will "Shower Tel Aviv with Rockets"

This warning was issued by Assad in response to the possibility that the U.S. or any NATO countries would intervene in Syrian affairs or at the Syrian border. This warning sounds a lot like a set-up for the expected prophecies which are described in Isaiah 17.

That takes us to today's news:

US: Assad Must Go

Targeted assassinations now dominate Bashar Assad's savage confrontation with the popular opposition to his rule.

For the first time in seven months since President Bashar Assad embarked on his bloody crackdown on dissent, the White House has called on him to "step down now before taking his country farther down this very dangerous path."

Spokesman Jay Carney's wording implied that Syria was set on the path to civil war in the wake of the murder of Mashaal Tammo, the popular head of the opposition Kurdish Future Party and former member of parliament. Friday, Oct. 7, killing him and seriouslyl injuring his son.

While the Syrian News Agency attributed the murder to "an armed terrorist group," DEBKAfile's intelligence sources disclose it was the work of a death squad run by the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate commanded by Jamil Hassan.

The contest between the regime and the opposition has shifted in the last two weeks from street confrontations between massed protesters and government forces backed by tanks – a contest in which Assad has more or less gained the upper hand - to a shadow war of reciprocal targeted assassinations of prominent figures on both sides.

So does this represent an idle threat by the U.S., or does it serve as a warning to the Assad regime?

Only time will tell, but the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate.

We may be on the verge of seeing "responsibility to protect" come into play.

If so, things will become very interesting in the Middle East.