The Long Reach of Syria’s Conflict. In the New Yorker, Dexter Filkins weighs in on yesterday’s gory suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, which he says shows the long reach of the Syrian war.

“The most significant aspect of the bombing was not its aftermath but its implication: the sectarian war unfolding in Syria is beginning to engulf Lebanon as well,” Filkins writes.

“We don’t yet know who carried out the attack, which took place in the largely Shiite neighborhood of Bir Hassan. The Iranian ambassador, who survived, blamed the Israelis. A jihadi group known as the Abdullah Azaam Brigade claimed responsibility, according to a Lebanese press report. Best bet is that the attack was carried out by a group close to the Syrian rebels, who are trying to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad.”

In the two and a half years since the rebellion began, the war in Syria has become a largely sectarian struggle, in ways that have sparked religious fault lines.

“On one side sits the Assad government, dominated by Alawites, who consider themselves Shiites. Arrayed against them (and Syria’s other minorities) is the vast majority of Syria’s population, which is Sunni Muslim. It’s a death match; the Alawites rightly fear that if they lose the war they will probably vanish from Syria altogether.”

Syria troops seize strategic town of Qara. Al Jazeera reports that Syrian troops have taken control of the strategic village of Qara, which is in the mountainous Qalamoun region “along a key supply route between Damascus and Homs. The capture of the area on Tuesday comes days after pro-Assad forces launched an offensive against the town near the Lebanese border.”

The network says that the fall of Qara “strengthens the regime’s hold of a highway linking the capital to government strongholds along the coast.”

U.S. Weighs Destroying Syrian Chemicals at Sea. The New York Times reports that the U.S., unable to find a country willing to dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons, “is considering plans to place the chemical components of the weapons on a barge where they would be dissolved or incinerated.”

This follows rejections for calls to destroy the weapons by both Albania and Norway, whose citizens protested.

“The two systems under review are intended to destroy the precursor materials that are designed to be combined to form chemical munitions. Syria’s smaller arsenal of operational chemical weapons would be destroyed separately,” the Times said.

“Officials from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is operating in Syria to locate and identify the weapons, would monitor the destruction. Officials did not say whether any chemical residue would be dumped in the ocean. The system could be operational in 75 days.”

Russia Should Destroy Syria’s Chemical Weapons. To that end, the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board poses that destroying the weapons is a job not for Albania, but for Russia, the Syrian government’s biggest ally.

“The most obvious candidate: Russia. The Russians have extensive experience in dismantling their own chemical, biological and nuclear weapons,” they write. “But Moscow is reluctant, reportedly because it is behind schedule in destroying its own chemical arms. So far, Putin reportedly has offered only technical support. He needs to do more.

“Russia is Assad’s staunch ally and one of the brokers of this deal. Putin has more to gain in ensuring these weapons are safely destroyed and more to lose if they are not. President Putin, time to ante up. You can’t lead from behind on this.

“Earlier this year, the OPCW won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to scour chemical weapons from the face of the Earth. But this dangerous work cannot be completed without extensive cooperation from Syria … and its Russian allies.”

Suggested reads from our editorial team:

BBC News: Chechens Drawn South to Fight Against Syria’s Assad

TIME.com: Bombing of Iranian Embassy in Beirut Raises Fears of Syrian Spillover

Reuters: Surviving ‘Death Boat,’ Syria Palestinians Locked Up in Egypt

AP: Syria, Human Rights on Agenda for China-EU Summit