World News
26-05-2012   20:30
FSA will stop implementing Annan's plan if no immediate solution adopted

The Free Syrian Army announced on Saturday that it will stop implementing Annan's plan if the U.N. Security Council does not adopt an immediate solution to protect civilians.

A spokesman for the United Nations' envoy to Syria says international monitors arrived in Houla where the Syrian Observatory say 114 people were killed by government troops.          

UN leader Ban Ki-moon and UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Saturday described the massacre as an "appalling and brutal" breach of international law.           

The UAE called for an emergency Arab League meeting to discuss the Houla massacre.

In turn, the GCC condemned the massacre and confirmed that the Gulf States are following up with “deep concern” the regrettable developments in Syria.

A Syrian artillery barrage killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children, in the worst violence since the start of a U.N. peace plan to staunch the flow of blood from Syria's uprising, activists said on Saturday.    

German foreign minister says he was “shocked” by the death of dozens of civilians in Syria’s Houla.

The White House says it is horrified by the brutal attack in Syria.
 
National Security Council spokeswoman Erin Pelton said Saturday that the attack serves as a "vile testament to an illegitimate regime" of President Bashar Assad. The head of the U.N. observer team said the assault on Houla, a group of villages northwest of the besieged city of Homs, killed more than 60 adults and at least 32 children under the age of 10.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the attack on Houla, saying that "with these new crimes, this murderous regime pushes Syria further into horror and threatens regional stability." 

In turn, Major General Robert Mood warned that violence in Syria could lead the country into a “civil war”.

Syrian state television aired some of the footage disseminated by activists, 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.    

A British-based opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said residents of Houla were fleeing in fear of more shelling.    

It said one person was killed in the northern town of Saraqeb when security forces opened fire on a protest against the killing. Activists distributed footage appearing to show similar protests in Aleppo, the largest city in the north.    

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.    

Opposition activists said Syrian forces had opened fire with artillery on Friday after skirmishing with insurgents in Houla, a cluster of villages north of the city of Homs, itself battered by shelling.    

The state news agency SANA said the observers had visited Houla on Saturday, but did not elaborate. A spokeswoman for the monitoring mission did not respond to calls.    

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, a member of the minority Alawite sect.

REUTERS/AP/LBCI
Emails Lbci email us tell your friend about LBCI News 1439 Views
login to your facebook account to comment
Read More:
- Barred from election, Rafsanjani lambasts Iranian authorities - report
- Two suicide bombers strike in northern Niger towns- sources
- France backs call to put Hezbollah armed wing on EU terror list
- Police: Car bomb kills 12 in southwest Pakistan
- House committee passes Iran sanctions legislation
- GM recalls more than 27,000 Cadillac crossovers with wheel issue
LBCI Headlines
Suicide at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris     Seven kidnapped Egyptian security officers released      North Korea sends leader's special envoy to China     As U.S. struggles with Syria policy, Senate panel backs arming rebels     Patriarch Rai participates in the Pope's daily mass     Price of gasoline increases 200 LBP