Thread: Syria News and Editorials

U.N. holds Assad regime responsible for deaths
By BEN HUBBARD
Associated Press
Posted: 05/26/2012 0933 PM PDT
Updated: 05/26/2012 0933 PM PDT


BEIRUT — Gruesome video Saturday showed rows of dead Syrian children lying in a mosque in bloody shorts and T-shirts with gaping head wounds, haunting images of what activists called one of the deadliest regime attacks yet in Syria's 14-month-old uprising.
The shelling attack on Houla, a group of villages northwest of the central city of Homs, killed more than 90 people, including at least 32 children under the age of 10, the head of the U.N. observer team in Syria said.
The attacks sparked outrage from U.S. and other international leaders, and large protests in the suburbs of Syria's capital of Damascus and its largest city, Aleppo. It also renewed fears of the relevance of a month-old international peace plan that has not stopped almost daily violence.
The U.N. denounced the attacks in a statement that appeared to hold President Bashar Assad's regime responsible, and the White House called the violence acts of "unspeakable and inhuman brutality."
"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," said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and international envoy Kofi Annan. "Those responsible for perpetrating this crime must be held to account."
More than a dozen amateur videos posted online Saturday gave glimpses of the carnage, showing lines of bodies laid out in simple rooms, many with bloody faces, torsos and limbs. In some places, residents put chunks of ice on the bodies to preserve them until burial.
One two-minute video shows at least a dozen children lined up shoulder to shoulder on a checkered blanket on what appears to be the floor of a mosque. Blood trickled from one girl's mouth. One boy, appearing to be no more than 8, had his jaw blown off. The video shows flowered blankets and rugs covering several rows of other bodies.
Activists from Houla said Saturday that regime forces peppered the area with mortars after large demonstrations against the regime on Friday. That evening, they said, pro-regime fighters known as shabiha stormed the villages, gunning down men in the streets and stabbing women and children in their homes.
A local activist reached via Skype said regime forces fired shells at Houla, about 25 miles northwest of Homs. The shabiha entered the villages, raiding homes and shooting at civilians, Abu Yazan said. More than 100 people were killed, more than 40 of them children and most of them in the village of Taldaw, he said.
"They killed entire families, from parents on down to children, but they focused on the children," Yazan said.
The Syrian government blamed the killings on "armed terrorist groups" — a term it often uses for the opposition — but provided no details or death toll.

But like U.N. officials, the White House issued a statement directed at the regime.
The U.S. is "horrified" by the Houla attacks, National Security Council spokeswoman Erin Pelton said in a statement. "These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms," demanding that "those who perpetrated this atrocity must be identified and held to account."
"The United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Assad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end," Clinton said in statement.
U.N. observers, among more than 250 who were dispatched in recent weeks to salvage the cease-fire plan, found spent artillery tank shells at the site Saturday, and U.N. officials confirmed the shells were fired at residential neighborhoods. The head of the team, Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, called the attack a "brutal tragedy."
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 cease-fire between forces loyal to the regime of 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.
The U.N. put the death toll weeks ago at more than 9,000. Hundreds have been killed since.
The grisly images were condemned by anti-regime groups and political leaders around the world.
"With these new crimes, this murderous regime pushes Syria further into horror and threatens regional stability," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement Saturday.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released an unusually harsh statement, saying Arab nations and the international community were "partners" in the killing "because of their silence about the massacres that the Syrian regime has committed."
The Houla villages are Sunni Muslim. The forces came from an arc of nearby villages populated by Alawites, members of the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, the activists said.
The activists said the Houla killings appeared to be sectarian between the two groups, raising fears that Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with protests calling for political reform, is edging closer to the type of war that tore apart Syria's eastern neighbor, Iraq.
"I don't like to talk about sectarianism, but it was clear that this was sectarian hatred," said activist Abu Walid.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 96 people were killed, 26 of them children and four of them army defectors.
The group's head, Rami Abdul-Rahman, who relies on activists inside Syria, said all were killed in shelling, but that no forces entered Houla.

Syrian state TV condemned the opposition groups for the "massacre" in a statement Saturday.
"The armed groups are escalating their massacres against the Syrian people only days before international envoy Kofi Annan's visit in a bid to defeat his plan and a political solution to the crisis and with the aim of exploiting the blood of Syrians in the media bazar," it said.
The videos could not be independently verified. The Syrian government bars most media from operating inside the country.
The harsh condemnation from anti-regime groups reflects their growing frustration with international reluctance to intervene in Syria's conflict.
World powers have fallen in behind the U.N. plan. The U.S. and European nations say they will not intervene militarily, and while Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Libya have said they will arm Syria's rebels, no country is known to be doing so.
A spokeswoman for the opposition Syrian National Council called on the U.N. Security Council "to examine the situation in Houla and to determine the responsibility of the United Nations in the face of such mass killings, expulsions and forced migration from entire neighborhoods."
Also Saturday, the story of 11 Lebanese Shiites who were reported kidnapped in Syria this week took another strange turn.
Lebanese officials first said their expected arrival on a plane from Turkey to Lebanon late Friday was delayed for "logistical reasons."
On Saturday, Turkey's Foreign Ministry denied the men were in Turkey — raising new questions about their fate.
Lebanese and Syrian officials blamed Syrian rebels for Tuesday's kidnapping. No group has claimed responsibility.

U.N. says over 92 killed in Syria, 32 of them children

By Joseph Logan | Reuters – 1 hour 55 minutes ago12 photos - Fri 25 May, 2012




BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Saturday that more than 92 people were killed in what activists described as an artillery barrage by government forces in the worst violence since the start of a U.N. peace plan to slow the flow of blood in Syria's uprising.
The bloodied bodies of children, some with their skulls split open, were shown in footage posted to YouTube purporting to show the victims of the shelling in the central town of Houla on Friday. The sound of wailing filled the room.
The carnage underlined just how far Syria is from any negotiated path out of the 14-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
"This morning U.N. military and civilian observers went to Houla and counted more than 32 children under the age of 10 and over 60 adults killed," the head of U.N. team monitoring the ceasefire - which has yet to take hold - said.
"The observers confirmed from examination of ordinances the use of artillery tank shells," Major General Robert Mood said in a statement, without elaborating. "Whoever started, whoever responded and whoever carried out this deplorable act of violence should be held responsible."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack.
"Those who perpetrated this atrocity must be identified and held to account," she said in a statement. "And the United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Assad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end."
In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded "the government of Syria immediately cease the use of heavy weapons in population centres."
Activists said Assad's forces shelled the town of Houla on Friday evening after security forces killed a protester and following skirmishes between troops and fighters from the Sunni Muslim-led insurgency fighting Syria's rulers, who belong to the minority Alawite sect.
A British-based opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Houla residents fled, fearing more shelling. It said one person was killed in the northern town of Saraqeb when troops fired on a protest against the killing.
Syrian state television aired some of the footage disseminated by activists after the killing in Houla, calling the bodies victims of a massacre committed by "terrorist" gangs.
It also showed video of bodies with what looked like gunshot wounds to the head, sprawled on bloodstained mattresses.
Activists distributed footage appearing to show protests in Aleppo, the largest city in the north.
FAMILIES KILLED
A member of the fragmented exile group that says it speaks for Syria's political opposition said Assad's forces had killed "entire families" in Houla in addition to the shelling.
"The Syrian National Council (SNC) urges the U.N. Security Council to call for an emergency meeting ... and to determine the responsibility of the United Nations in the face of such mass killings," SNC spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said.
Although a 6-week-old ceasefire plan negotiated by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan has failed to stop the violence, the United Nations is nearing full deployment of a 300-strong unarmed observer force meant to monitor a truce.
The plan calls for a truce, withdrawal of troops from cities and dialogue between the government and opposition.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the violence as a "massacre" and said he wanted to arrange a meeting in Paris of the Friends of Syria, a group that brings together Western and Arab countries keen to remove Assad.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was coordinating a "strong response" to the killings and would call for the Security Council to meet in the coming days.
United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abudllah bin Zayed al-Nahayan requested an urgent meeting of the Arab League while Arab League head Nabil Elaraby called the killing in Houla a "horrific crime."
Elaraby urged the U.N. Security Council - where Russia and China have protected Syria - to "stop the escalation of killing and violence by armed gangs and government military forces."
Syria calls the revolt a "terrorist" conspiracy run from abroad, a veiled reference to Sunni Muslim Gulf powers that want to see weapons provided to an insurgency led by Syria's majority Sunnis against Assad.
"TERRORIST GROUPS"
Ban said on Friday that recent bomb attacks may have been the work of "established terrorist groups" and urged states not to supply arms to either the government or rebel forces.
"Those who may contemplate supporting any side with weapons, military training or other military assistance, must reconsider such options to enable a sustained cessation of violence," he told the Security Council in a letter.
The United Nations has accused Assad's forces and insurgents alike of grave human rights abuses, including summary executions and torture.
Ban also has expressed fear that Syria's conflict will destabilise neighbouring Lebanon, whose delicate sect-based politics has been shaken by tensions among Lebanese foes and friends of the uprising in Syria.
In the latest episode, gunmen in northern Syria snatched a group of Lebanese Shi'ites this week as they were returning from a religious pilgrimage, deepening unrest after sectarian fighting in northern Lebanon and battles between pro- and anti-Syrian Sunni factions in the capital over the last two weeks.
Uncertainty over their increased tension in Beirut on Saturday, a day after Lebanon's top officials said the release of the hostages and their return home was imminent. Shi'ites had blocked roads and burned tyres after hearing of the abduction.
The prime minister said on Friday afternoon they had been freed but by Saturday there was still no sign of them. A member of the SNC said they still were in captivity, further angering a crowd that had gathered at Beirut's airport to meet them.
(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir in Cairo; Editing by Jon Hemming and Bill TrottA)

This is not pretty, and I suggest you don't open it if you don't have a strong stomach, but this is what that murderous c**t Assad is doing, with the backing of Iran and Russia.

Can you imagine what the Syrian people want to do to him.

Do you really think they will stop trying to get rid of him now?

There is only one solution to stop these atrocities, and that is that Assad goes.

If the Russians and Iranians won't get rid of him, someone else has to, and if the West intends to stand idly by mouthing pointless cliches, then it will end up being a costly and painful victory. I'm surprised the Syrian Army has the heart to keep doing this - obviously many of them don't.

I forgot to add, even if the Sunni gov'ts in the GCC don't do anything about it, their people will when they see this on TV (which most of them probably already have).

A few more hundred Al Qaeda terrorists are probably being armed and sent there as we speak.

Some peace initiative.....

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

This is not pretty, and I suggest you don't open it if you don't have a strong stomach, but this is what that murderous c**t Assad is doing, with the backing of Iran and Russia.

I didn't heed your warning, thought i had a strong stomach and i am now sick and off to throw up.

I make no apologies, people need to see what this evil fucking regime is doing on a near daily basis. This is what politicians and the rich have let the world become. It just beggars belief.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

A few more hundred Al Qaeda terrorists are probably being armed and sent there as we speak.

Some peace initiative.....

Armed and supported by the coalition crusaders. Who incidentally have signed a UN resolution condemning violence and terrosism and some of them are actually fighting what they call the "war against terrorism" around the globe.

Bloody, murdering hypocrites.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

A few more hundred Al Qaeda terrorists are probably being armed and sent there as we speak.

Some peace initiative.....

Armed and supported by the coalition crusaders. Who incidentally have signed a UN resolution condemning violence and terrosism and some of them are actually fighting what they call the "war against terrorism" around the globe.

Bloody, murdering hypocrites.

Are you some kind of fucking retard? Have you not seen what Assad's tanks did?

Or are you so convinced that Assad is a victim of your bullshit "crusader coalition" propoganda?

If the West wants to win the hearts and minds of the Syrian people, there is a simple solution. Kill Assad. What are the Russians going to do? Bomb America?

Fuck me, all America has to do is wipe out the Caymans and Putin's fucked.

And he's shelling Hama and Rastan again, 30 more dead.

FFS what is up with the Russians?

Just get rid of him and let ALL the people elect a new government.

Then buy off the ones who get elected like you want to.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

there is a simple solution. Kill Assad.

To be replaced with whom?

Again, if you read this fucking thread:

WITH A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT.

How many times do I have to use the phrase "Free and Fair Elections" with you in this thread before you get the slightest fucking grasp of what it means?

Originally Posted by OhOh

More mainstream propaganda found to be false.

BBC News uses 'Iraq photo to illustrate Syrian massacre' - Telegraph




The BBC's excuse is that "IT WAS WIDELY CIRCULATED ON THE INTERNET".

That appears to be enough evidence of an atrocity for the BBC.

It's a shame the ineptitude of that shit organisation allow you to trivialise what happened in Al Houla, but it's nothing I don't expect from them, or you.

embarrassing mistake, we all know that the Pentagon is trying to exploit stories after supporting terrorist groups in their attacks of locals

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Originally Posted by OhOh

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

there is a simple solution. Kill Assad.

To be replaced with whom?

Again, if you read this fucking thread:

WITH A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT.

How many times do I have to use the phrase "Free and Fair Elections" with you in this thread before you get the slightest fucking grasp of what it means?

Jesus christ, harryb, how more stupid and ignorant can you be ? this is not some kind of XBOX video game like Call of Duty with an happy ending

get a brain will you, or stop thinking XBOX when you read the news

[quote=OhOh;2111852]

It's hard to know where to begin with this inventive little tome.

If you had read some of them you will have understood that the Syrian Government has recently produced a revised constitution and held elections, to which all had access to stand and vote. Unfortunately some decided that they hadn't a chance of winning through elections and decided, with the full backing of the crusader coalition, to instigate/continue with a terrorist war.

Ignoring your stupid "crusader coalition" nonsense, the "revised constitution" did nothing to even remotely offer to share power with the Syrian people; in fact its most significant change was to guarantee Assad the right to stay in power until 2028. It allows "multi-party" elections, as long as they are the "New Baath Party", or the "Revolutionary Baath Party" or any other umbrella organisation set up by Assad's followers to fill the seats. This was also posted in the thread, yet conveniently you choose to ignore it.

Then you criticise the opposition for wanting no part in a rigged election?

And let's remember who started this "war", shall we, rather than you claiming "terrorists instigated it", which is a big a pile of bullshit as I've read from you.

It was Assad's troops that kidnapped, tortured and killed a bunch of kids for writing anti-regime grafitti that they'd seen on television. And when people protested, it was Assad's troops that opened fire on unarmed civilians.

Assad opened this tin of worms and I hope to God he gets the justice he deserves. If he's lucky, he'll end up in a Tehran villa counting his gold, and even if that is a major injustice at least it will have got rid of the murderous scum.

Had they accepted the new offer they might be on their way to a peaceful settlement, but they decided that the way to peace, ha ha, was through the barrel of a gun. Or maybe you are suggesting the Yugoslavian, the Yemeni, the Bahraini or Libyan examples?

Funnily enough the Yemeni option is one being touted as a possible solution; it allows for a transfer of power without the total dismantling of the state's apparatus, a la Libya, from which we've seen it is difficult to emerge.

Which countries Democratic Election system are you suggesting the Syrians follow. The UK, where you have to be selected as the "right sort" by a political party to have any chance of making a difference or forming a government? The US where the ability to pay for prime time commercials is garnered from big business or bankers to protect their profits ensures your election, because if it's on TV it's true? The Thai way? All of these are supposedly democratic. Which one is it harry?

Why do you insist on fudging the issue with irrelevant bullshit?

So what if there are flaws in other democratic systems, are you really saying that Assad should stay in power after murdering thousands of civilians simply because you see problems with democracy?

Ludicrous.

The constitution should allow anyone to stand regardless of sect, and Assad should pull the tanks out of residential areas and stop bombing innocent people.

Perhaps you haven't seen this video yet, have another look.

About the only thing you've got right is that it was a terrorist atrocity. The difference is that this is state sponsored terrorism at its worst.




This is why the Syrian people will never forgive Assad for what he has done and is still doing.

Assad is nothing more than a cancerous tumour on Syria, and should be excised.

It's a shame the UN can find nothing more than the usual bluster and rhetoric in response. As I said, if the UN is not going to help the Syrian people, they'll take any help they can get. Expect legions of suicide bombers and wannabe martyrs, because they feel that is their only change to defend themselves against Assad's slaughter.

Assad and his cronies will do anything to cling on to power, and the irony is that if the West was supporting him and Russia and Iran were against him, you'd be bleating on about how the "Crusader coalition" are backing this "murderous regime".

You're blinded by your crusader coalition bollocks to the point where you can't see the truth when it's staring you in the face.

^ Not quite sure why the video repeated, but fuck it, watch it again. It should haunt everyone who stands by and lets that c*nt Assad keep doing it.

I'm still feeling horrified 24 hours later.

Assad must be executed along with his wife and close associates.
That will be the only way to stop his regime of horror.
Any takers?

A spokesman for Syria's Foreign Ministry has said that an investigation is underway into the attack in Houla on Friday that left more than 100 people dead. Jihad Makdissi denied that Syrian forces were to blame and said that "no tanks or artillery entered al-Houla town".

What a lovely piece of bullshit. They didn't "enter" the town.

They just shelled the fuck out of it.

C U N T S !

He wasn't lying either the frkn mealie mouthed politician, they also sent in foot soldiers for the fine tuning.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Jesus christ, harryb, how more stupid and ignorant can you be ? this is not some kind of XBOX video game like Call of Duty with an happy ending

get a brain will you, or stop thinking XBOX when you read the news

Buttplug, unless you have anything useful to offer to the subject at hand, can I suggest you fuck off back to the cock sucking forums you inhabit, where your expertise may be better received and might actually contribute something to your fellow homosexual deviants.

'Cos you have you fuck all to offer here, you fucking retard.

^ and all you do is posting links of retarded news by propagandist with your usual racist British proud rant