Syrian regime resumes bombardment of Houla

Donnerstag, 31. Mai 2012

Syrian regime resumes bombardment of Houla

Syrian regime forces resumed their bombardment of Houla on Thursday, even as a government spokesman claimed that "terrorists" were responsible for the massacre of more than 100 people including women and children at the weekend.

A Syrian girl sits atop of a UN observers vehicle during a demonstration in Kfarnebel

Residents in the town said shelling had resumed on Wednesday night and were also using sniper fire on residents. Activists posted online a video showing the bleeding body of a 14-year-old boy, named as Oday Abdulhakim al-Saleh, who they said was shot dead on Thursday morning.

"We are being shelled," an anti-government activist in the town who gave his name as Saria al-Houlany said by Skype. "The attack started last night and has carried on all today since early morning. All of the city is being bombarded, including where the massacre took place."

The United Nations, whose observers were able to visit Houla after the killings on Friday night, said at least 108 people died, including 34 women and 49 children. They said the overwhelming majority had been shot dead, with some bodies showing knife wounds.

The rest were killed by shell-fire from artillery and tanks not available to the opposition.

Residents say the gangs who moved in after the initial bombardment were "Shabiha" or informal pro-government militias from neighbouring Alawite villages.

There has been sporadic shooting at the town in the days since.

"The people in the neighbouring village of Waer can see the missiles crossing overhead and landing in Houla," the activist said. "Some of the people who were saved from the massacre have fled the city completely, but some of them are hiding in field hospitals and clinics.

"Twice shells have almost hit a clinic. Yesterday one exploded in an empty building just to the right of where the wounded and doctors are, and where families are hiding.

"The regime does not want any witnesses left alive for the horrible massacres it committed." The weekend attack was triggered by an assault on army positions by the Free Syrian Army, some of whom remain in Houla, including 16 defected army officers.

Responding to the initial outrage, the Syrian authorities immediately blamed "armed gangs and terrorists". Yesterday it held a press conference to announce that an inquiry by General Qassem Jamal Suleiman found that 800 members of "armed groups" had carried out the attack.

"Killing children does not meet any goal of the government but those of the armed groups," he said.

He gave no explanation for how the deaths by shelling had occurred, but he said that the town was targeted because it was home to a member of parliament, Abdulmou'ti Mashlab.

Army defectors who spoke to The Daily Telegraph inside Syria earlier this year said the government was careful to distinguish between the security forces and the paramilitaries so that it could distance the army from the latter's atrocities.

Another activist, "Abu Jawfer", who witnessed the massacre, said: "Mashlab is in Damascus and he is too frightened to come back to his village now.

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Donnerstag, 31. Mai 2012