Syrian forces kill 13 in calculated arrest

Syrian security forces lined up and shot dead 13 men and boys from one extended family on Thursday after raiding the village of Kfartoun in Hama province, activists in Hama city said.    

They said the victims were from two branches of the Asaad family. The motive for the killings was not immediately clear. The Turkish-based leader of the rebel Free Syrian Army is named Riad al-Asaad. He comes from the northwestern province of Idlib.    

Activists said three people were killed in shelling of the nearby village of Soubin. The bodies of five Syrian workers who disappeared two days ago after crossing from Lebanon on their way to Hama were found on Thursday, they said.

Earlier on Thursday, Syrian tanks push into rebel stronghold in Homs Armored forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad moved into the rebel district of Baba Amro in Homs after 20 days of sustained bombardment, opposition sources said. 

"Tanks have entered the Jobar area in the south of Baba Amro," activist Abu Imad told Reuters from the city.  

On the other hand Syrian forces have shot dead unarmed women and children, shelled residential areas and tortured wounded protesters in hospital under orders from the "highest level" of army and government officials, the United Nations said on Thursday.     I

ndependent U.N. investigators called for perpetrators of such crimes against humanity to face prosecution and said they had drawn up a confidential list of names of commanding officers and officials alleged to be responsible.   

"The commission received credible and consistent evidence identifying high- and mid-ranking members of the armed forces who ordered their subordinates to shoot at unarmed protestors, kill soldiers who refused to obey such orders, arrest persons without cause, mistreat detained persons and attack civilian neighborhoods with indiscriminate tanks and machine-gun fire," investigators said in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.    

The commission of inquiry, headed by Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro, found that rebel forces led by the Free Syrian Army had also committed abuses including killings and abductions, "although not comparable in scale".   

Reuters/LBCI