Alawites have become a community besieged, set to be excluded — if not persecuted — by the Sunni political class now in ascendance.

After the book’s release, Oosterhoff said he was besieged by requests and carried out 13 euthanasia procedures that year.

In Aleppo, Douma and elsewhere, the regime forces besieged rebel-held areas, cutting off food and medicine supplies, and proceeded to bomb them until armed opposition groups surrendered.

Thousands of structures have been damaged in the fires that have besieged Los Angeles.

Things seem destined to grow worse across a wide swath of Los Angeles and its besieged neighbors.