Syrian Activists Claim Death Toll in Village Soars

BEIRUT, Lebanon ? Scores of villagers, including at least 32 children under 10, were killed in a Syrian town near the central city of Homs, top United Nations officials said on Saturday, strongly suggesting that the government of Syria was to blame.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and Kofi Annan, his predecessor and envoy to Syria, issued a joint statement condemning the attack, which appeared among the worst episodes of carnage since the uprising began 15 months ago. United Nations observers who visited the town of Houla confirmed ?that artillery and tank shells were fired at a residential neighborhood,? the statement said.

?This appalling and brutal crime involving indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is a flagrant violation of international law and of the commitments of the Syrian government to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers and violence in all its forms,? the statement from the top United Nations officials said. It called Syria to stop using heavy weapons in population centers and for all sides to cease violence.

United Nations observers reported that aside from the 32 children, the monitors counted more than 60 dead adults, bringing the overall toll to at least 92. Ahmad Fawzi, the spokesman for Mr. Annan, also said the observers counted more than 300 wounded.

Syrian opposition organizations accused government forces of carrying out the massacre in Houla ? 15 miles northwest of Homs ? first by raking the town with tank and mortar shells all day Friday and then by sending soldiers and pro-government thugs to storm the village. They put the death toll around 100, including women and 50 children.

The Syrian government accused ?terrorists,? its usual phrase for the opposition, of killing the civilians.

Gory images of the aftermath ? particularly the scene of rows of dead children smeared with blood ? prompted an emotional outpouring of antigovernment demonstrations across Syria.

Gen. Robert Mood, the head of the United Nations observer mission in Syria, said the circumstances behind the deaths remained ?unclear,? but he, too, noted that the United Nations observers who visited the town had found spent tank shells there. In his statement, General Mood also called on the Syrian government ?to cease the use of heavy weapons and on all parties to cease violence in all forms.?

The massacre was certain to call into question the continued effectiveness of the truce just as Mr. Annan, the architect of the plan, heads to Damascus.

The reaction also took on a sectarian tone. Activists said that much of the slaughter had been carried out by pro-government thugs, or ?shabiha,? from the area. Houla is a Sunni Muslim town, while three villages around it are mostly Alawite and a fourth is Shiite Muslim.

Since the president and the core of the security services are also Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, there were angry calls for sectarian revenge. A man in a black knitted mask who appeared on one YouTube video, for example, said it was time ?to prepare for vengeance against this awful sectarian regime.?

State television repeatedly broadcast pictures of members of one household that had been massacred, calling it ?part of the ugly crimes that the terrorists are committing against the Syrians with the financial support of some Arab states and others.?

But there has been a pattern of similar government assaults in recent months against villages sympathetic to the opposition.

The Syrian National Council, the umbrella opposition organization in exile, condemned the killing and called for three days of mourning.

Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, issued a statement accusing Syria?s government of committing ?new massacres? and added that France would organize a meeting of the roughly 80-member ?Friends of Syria? group as soon as possible.

The British foreign secretary, William Hague, said Britain was looking for a strong international response and hoped to convene an ?urgent? session of the United Nations Security Council ?in the coming days.?

An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Damascus, Syria.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7d951a50ffc31e11fecd5eb05d8c6826

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