Al-assad’s troops massacre 27 as attacks continue
AMMAN: Syrian troops and militia loyal to President Bashar al-assad captured and then shot dead 27 young men in northern villages, and two foreign journalists were killed in shelling of the besieged city of Homs.
The two Western journalists were killed yesterday when shells hit the house they were staying in, activists and witnesses said. They were Marie Colvin, an American working for Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, and French photographer Remi Ochlik.
A witness said shells hit the house where the journalists were staying and a rocket hit them as they were escaping.
Violence continued to spread. Several Youtube videos taken by local activists in Idlib showed bodies of young men with bullet wounds and hands tied, lying dead in streets.
The men, all civilians, were mostly shot in the head or chest on Tuesday in their homes or in streets in the villages of Idita, Iblin and Balshon near the border with Turkey, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said.
“Military forces chased civilians in these villages, arrested them and killed them without hesitation. They concentrated on male youths, and whoever did not manage to escape was to be killed,” the organisation said.
“Responsibility for this massacre lies with the general commander of the military and armed forces, Bashar alAssad,” the statement said.
The raids came as the US appeared to open the door to eventually arming the Syrian opposition, saying that if a political solution to the crisis was impossible, it might have to consider other options.
The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the US State Department on Tuesday, marked a shift in emphasis by Washington, which so far has stressed a policy of not arming the opposition, and has said little about alternatives.
Asked if the US was shifting its stance on arming the rebels, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington did not want to see the violence increase and was concentrating on political efforts to halt the bloodshed.
“That said, if we can’t get Assad to yield to the pressure that we are all bringing to bear, we may have to consider additional measures,” she said, declining to elaborate.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet representatives of some 70 countries and organisations in Tunis tomorrowfor the first “Friends of Syria” meeting to co-ordinate the international community’s next steps. – Reuters