Syrian forces shoot at UN monitors
BEIRUT (AP) — UN observers have come under fire as they tried to reach the site of the latest reported mass killing in Syria — about 80 people, including women and children who were shot or stabbed. The deaths added urgency to diplomatic efforts to end the escalating bloodshed.
As reports emerged Wednesday of what would be the fourth such mass slaying of civilians
in Syria in the last two weeks,
the United States condemned
President Bashar Assad, saying
he has ``doubled down on his
brutality and duplicity.’’
UN patrols in Syria have on several instances been deliberately targeted with heavy weapons, armor-piercing ammunition and a surveillance drone, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council, according to a senior UN official. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because Thursday’s council meeting was private, said
Ban also reported repeated
incidents of firing close to UN
patrols, apparently to get them to withdraw.
International envoy Kofi
Annan, whose peace plan
brokered in April has not been
implemented, warned against allowing ``mass killings to become part of everyday reality in Syria.’’
“If things do not change, the
future is likely to be one of brutal repression, massacres, sectarian violence, and even all-out civil war,’’ Annan told the UN General Assembly in New York. “All Syrians will lose.’’
UN diplomats said Annan was proposing that world powers and key regional players, including Iran, come up with a new strategy to end the
15-month conflict at a closed meeting of the Security Council that took place Thursday.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Annan highlight
ed the urgency of taking action to diffuse the situation.
Standing alongside Annan and League of Arab States Secretary General Nabil Elaraby, Ban echoed the sense of urgency.
“The three of us agree: Syria can quickly go from a tipping point danger to of a full-scale breaking civil point. war The is imminent and real, with cata
strophic consequences for Syria and the region,’’ Ban warned.
Any proposal to resolve
the situation, however, must
be acceptable to Russia and
China, which have protected their ally from past UN sanctions, as well as the US and its European allies, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private.
The latest violence centered
on Mazraat al-Qubair, a small
farming community of 160
people, mostly Bedouins, in central Hama province. Activists said the Sunni village is surrounded by Alawite villages. Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam and Assad is a
member of the sect, while the
opposition is dominated by Sunnis.
A resident said troops shelled the area for five hours Wednes
day before government-aligned militiamen known as ”shabiha” entered the area that is known to shelter army defectors, ”kill
ing and hacking everyone they
could find.’’
Leith Al-Hamwy told The Associated Press by telephone that he survived by hiding in an olive grove about 800 meters from the farms as the killings took place. But he said
his mother and six siblings, the youngest 10- year- old twins, did not.
``When I came out of hiding
and went inside the houses, I saw bodies everywhere. Entire families either shot or killed
with sharp sticks and knives,’’
he said. Al-Hamwy would not give his exact location or real name, fearing for his safety, but said he
was waiting for UN observers to
come to the farm. Al-Hamwy’s account could not be independently confirmed or corroborated by other eyewitnesses.