UN rights chief: Syria massacres must spur world action [View all]

[oberliner]

GENEVA (AFP) -- UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Friday called for urgent international action to halt the bloodshed in Syria following reports of recent massacres carried out by Syrian troops and their allies.

Several reported mass killings in and around the Mediterranean Syrian city of Banias "should spur the international community to act to find a solution to the conflict, and to ensure those responsible for serious human rights violations are made to account for their crimes," the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.

Rights monitors say at least 62 civilians, including 14 children, were killed in an assault on a Sunni neighborhood of Banias earlier this month, after at least 50 people were killed in the nearby village of Bayda.

"I am appalled at the apparent killing of women, children and men in the village of al-Bayda, and possibly elsewhere in the Baniyas area, which seem to indicate a campaign targeting specific communities perceived to be supportive of the opposition," Pillay said.

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