UN kept from site of killings
Air force massacres 220 in Hama village
UNITED NATIONS – UN observers in Syria described an attack on a village in the Hama region in which about 220 people were reported killed as part of a continuing Syrian air force operation, the UN mission said Friday.
“The situation in Hama province continues to be highly volatile and unpredictable,” the so-called “flash report” from the UN observer mission said.
“SAAF forces continue to target populated urban areas north of Hama City in a large scale,” the report said, referring to the Syrian Arab Air Force.
Opposition sources said about 220 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the village of Tremseh when it was attacked by helicopter gunships and tanks and then stormed by militiamen.
“The operation in Tremseh is assessed as an extension of the SAAF operation in Khan Sheikhoun to Souran over the recent number of days,” said the two-page report by the UN mission in Syria, known as UNSMIS.
According to the UNSMIS report, a patrol of unarmed UN military observers could get within only about six kilometres of Tremseh before being stopped by SAAF commanders because of “military operations.”
The patrol observed the situation from a few different locations around Tremseh for about eight hours during
“SAAF forces continue to target populated urban areas.”
UN OBSERVER MISSION REPORT
which time it heard more than 100 explosions, sporadic small arms and heavy machine gunfire and saw white and black smoke plumes.
It saw one Mi-8 and two Mi24 helicopters and witnessed one of the Mi-24 helicopters firing air-to-ground rockets.
“The patrol received several calls from local contacts claiming 50 people had been killed and 150 wounded within Tremseh,” the report said.
“Attempts to contact the local military commander during this period were unsuccessful,” it said. “Patrols attempted to access Tremseh via alternate routes without success.”
The UN observers said they also saw several civilian trucks and cars moving through the area carrying armed men wearing a mix of military and civilian clothing and 10 ambulances, one of which was transporting an armed person.
In a letter to the Security Council on Friday, international envoy Kofi Annan said the massacre in Tremseh showed that UN resolutions on Syria were being ignored, making it imperative to signal there would be consequences.
In a letter to the Security Council, UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called it an “outrageous escalation of violence.”
Russia has proposed extending the UN mission for 90 days, but Britain, the United States, France and Germany have countered with a draft resolution to extend it for 45 days and place Annan’s peace plan under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging up to military intervention. U.S. officials said they are talking about sanctions on Syria, not military intervention.