Syria UN observers visit ‘massacre’ town
DAMASCUS — UN observers rushed on Saturday to a town in central Syria where scores of civilians were reportedly massacred, including 32 children, as the armed opposition renewed calls for air strikes on regime forces.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) also announced it was no longer committed to the UN-backed peace plan for Syria unless there was prompt UN intervention to protect civilians. The shelling of the town of Houla by regime forces began at around midday on Friday and continued until dawn on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that UN observers had visited the area.
In Damascus, UN mission chief Gen. Robert Mood said in a statement the monitors had counted more than 92 bodies in Houla, and called the incident a “brutal tragedy”. “This morning UN military and civilian observers went to Houla and counted more than 32 children and over 60 adults killed,” the statement said. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the massacre and said he was “making immediate arrangements for a Friends of Syria group meeting in Paris”.
Earlier the rebel FSA urged the Friends of Syria nations to launch air strikes against President Bashar Assad’s forces. Turkey-based Gen. Mustafa Ahmed Sheikh, head of the FSA’s military council, urged “an appropriate stance after the heinous crime committed by Assad’s assassin regime in the Houla region”. “We are calling urgently on the Friends of Syria to create a military alliance, outside of the UN Security Council, to carry out targeted strikes against Assad’s gangs and the symbols of his regime,” he said.
http://jordantimes.com/syria-un-observers-visit-massacre-town
