Syria denies role in Houla massacre

Announcing the results of a preliminary investigation which is expected to be widely denounced as a sham, the Syrian foreign ministry claimed that their investigators’ report would “prove that the Syrian Arab Army would never commit such a crime against its people”.

Last Friday’s massacre, in which more than 100 people were killed including 49 children and 34 women, is being seen as a tipping point which has left Syria tilting even closer towards civil war. Blamed on Alawite thugs from the Shabiha, a pro-government militia, the massacre is thought by some ordinary Syrians to have been staged by the regime in order to stoke up sectarian tensions.

The Sunni majority accuses the government of cracking down using militia from the Shia and Alawite communities, and neighbourhoods are now fractured along sectarian lines – neighbour against neighbour, according to Channel 4 news reports from Syria.

But the regime of President Bashar al-Assad claimed that the massacre had been carried out by armed terrorists “to plant the seed of sectarianism”.

Syria’s killing fields

In a pointed effort to demonstrate that the victims were apolitical, Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, told a press conference at the ministry: “We based our report on statements from live witnesses, in addition to proofs and facts regarding the attack on the security forces in al Houla area.

“The massacre’s victims are from nonaligned families refusing to stand against the regime.

“Security forces have never entered the area of the massacre. The families which were killed were known for their peaceful life, and their opposition to the actions of the terrorist groups.

“The massacre is in line with the armed opposition’s patehtic plan to show that there is sectarian strife.

“The goal of these ugly massacres is to plant the seed of sectarianism, we are a mosaic of sects.”

5,000 displaced

Thousands of Syrians have left Houla to escape the fighting and the massacre fearing the killers will return, Channel 4 News reported. Many of the dead were women and children shot in their homes. Others were knifed as they tried to visit shops.

The Syrian Red Crescent has tried to deliver medicine and food and transport people in need of urgent medical attention. At least 5,000 are believed to be displaced since last Friday’s massacre.

IUN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday that the brutal massacre of civilians in the southern town “could plunge Syria into catastrophic civil war – a civil war from which the country would never recover”.

In a clear broadside, Mr Makdissi said: “It is unfortunate that Mr Ban Ki Moon would preach a sectarian war. Would he go back to the document we signed with his UN? It shows what we committed ourselves to.”

Peace plan in tatters

Rebel commander Riad al-Assad urged international envoy Kofi Annan to drop the six-point peace plan which he had attempted to implement several weeks ago so that they could continue to take up arms against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

“We want Kofi Annan to issue a declaration announcing the failure of this plan so that we would be free to carry out any military operation against the regime,” the rebel commander told Al-Jazeera.

But Mr Makdissi denounced Mr Annan’s statements imploring an end to the bloodshed which has continued despite the ceasefire agreement, which has involved a team of UN observers visiting the country.

“We would like Mr Annan to see what his observers are seeing,” he said. “The observers have a website and a media team, so I am sure he is listening to what we are saying now.”

Peace plan failure

Earlier, the Free Syrian Army also said they were prepared to begin taking up arms again.

“After the barbarous massacre of women and children at Houla… we announce that there is no more justification for us to unilaterally respect the truce because Assad has buried Annan’s plan,” a seperate FSA statement added.

For most Syrians, however, a formal end to the seven-week old ceasefire will mean little, as intense fighting has continued throughout.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the deepening crisis continued amid fresh reports that President Assad’s troops had shelled a central area in Houla using heavy machine guns. The reports, from the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, were immediately denied by the Assad regime, which again blamed “armed terrorists”.

Israel: ‘failed state’

China, which previously vetoed two security council resolutions calling for tougher action against Damascus, today urged the world to give the peace plan more time to work.

Further details also emerged of the 13 bound corpses discovered by UN observers on late on Tuesday night in Deir el-Zour province, in the east of the country. Many appeared to have been executed, and were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs.

Some appeared to have been shot in the head a close range, a statement by the UN mission added.

Meanwhile, Israel added to fears surrounding the future of the country by declaring that Syria was already in a civil war and was in danger of becoming a “failed state”.

“Syria is in civil war, which will lead to a failed state, and terrorism will blossom in it,” Major-General Yair Golan said at Bar Ilan University on Wednesday.

He added that the Israeli Defence Forces have already begun planning accordingly, and that they are “deeply engaged in getting ready, with plans and physical means” along the borders.