DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he hopes the most recent cease fire in the five-year civil war will allow his army to get back to "normal peacetime genocide" operations.

The conflict has involved a multitude of actors, making it difficult for government forces to “cull” any one group into “extinction," he said.

“Back in the old days, before the war, mass executions were much simpler,” said Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayyoub, Chief of Staff of the Syrian Army. “But then a few bad apples had to go and complicate things by fighting back.”