The Syrian government yesterday denied its troops were behind an attack on a string of villages that left more than 90 people dead, blaming the killings on “hundreds of heavily armed gunmen” who also attacked soldiers in the area.
Friday’s assault on Houla, an area northwest of the central city of Homs, was one of the bloodiest single events in Syria’s 15-month-old uprising. The UN says 32 children under 10 were among the dead. The international body and others have issued statements appearing to hold the Syrian regime responsible.
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told reporters in Damascus at a news conference that Syria is being subjected to a “tsunami of lies” on Houla.
Photo: AFP / HO / SHAAM NEWS NETWORK
“We categorically deny the responsibility of government forces for the massacre,” Makdissi said.
Makdissi said a committee was set up to investigate the incident and results should be out within three days. He said that special envoy Kofi Annan would be in Syria today.
The attacks sparked outrage from US and other international leaders, and renewed concerns about the relevance of a month-old international peace plan that has not stopped almost daily violence.
UN observers, among more than 250 who were dispatched in recent weeks to salvage the ceasefire plan, found spent artillery and tank shells at the site on Saturday — a finding that would point toward the government’s heavily armed mechanized units.
“Those who use violence for their own agenda will create more instability, more unpredictability and may lead the country to civil war,” the observers’ chief, Major General Robert Mood, said in a statement.
However, Makdissi said “hundreds of heavily armed gunmen carrying machineguns, mortars and anti-tank missiles” launched the attack, which started at about 2pm and lasted nine hours, simultaneously from several locations.
He added that five army positions in the area came under attack at the same time, leaving three soldiers dead and 16 wounded.
“There were no Syrian tanks or artillery in the vicinity” of Houla, Makdissi said.
He said that gunmen used anti-tank missiles and “Syrian troops retaliated in defense of their positions.”
Kuwait, which currently heads the 22-member Cairo-based Arab League, announced it was calling for an Arab ministerial meeting that aims to “take steps to put an end to the oppressive practices against the Syrian people.”
An unnamed foreign ministry official was quoted by Kuwait’s official news agency, KUNA, as condemning the attack in Houla and blamed regime forces for the “ugly crime.”
The official said Kuwait was making contacts so that the international community could “assume its responsibilities to stop the blood shedding of Syrian brothers.”
The UN had denounced the attacks in a statement that appeared to hold Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime responsible, and the White House called the violence acts of “unspeakable and inhuman brutality.”
Syria blames armed “terrorist groups.”
“Children, women and other innocent people were killed in their homes and this is not what the Syrian army does,” Makdissi said. “The method of killing was brutal.”
The bloodshed is yet another blow to the international peace plan brokered by Annan and cast a pall over his coming visit to check on the plan’s progress. The ceasefire between forces loyal to the regime of al-Assad and rebels seeking to topple it was supposed to start on April 12, but has never really taken hold, with new killings every day.
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