260 killed in Homs massacre; UN resolution on Syria vetoed

Feb 4, 2012, 18:27 GMT

Beirut - Syrian government troops killed at least 260 people in the dissident province of Homs, the opposition said Saturday, the massacre coming on a day that a UN resolution to bring peace to Syria was vetoed in the Security Council by Russia and China.

The United States immediately warned that the veto would lead to the greater likelihood of civil war in Syria.

'It is difficult to imagine that, after the bloodiest day yet in Syria, there are those who would prevent the world community from condemning this violence,' US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at the Munich Security Conference.

'I know what will happen. More bloodshed, increasing resistance by those whose families are being killed and a greater likelihood that Syria will descend into civil war. That is the outcome everyone must avoid,' she added.

A revised draft resolution, which had been weakened Friday to meet Moscow's demands, said the Security Council 'fully supports' the Arab League's initiatives, which call for a transitional government in Syria.

The Syrian opposition reacted with anger. 'This veto came at the expenses of the Syrian people and their blood,' Naji Tayyara, the head of foreign affairs at the opposition National Syrian Council, told dpa.

'I think the Syrian regime knew in advance that Russia was going to veto the resolution and that is why the regime committed the massacre in (the province of) Homs,' he added.

Russia said its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, would visit Damascus on Tuesday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad. Lavrov is to be accompanied by the chief of the Russian foreign intelligence service, Mikhail Fradkov.

Footage posted online Saturday by activists showed numerous rows of bodies being prepared for burial in Homs, called the 'capital of revolution' against al-Assad's regime.

The assault, the deadliest since the uprising started in March, was condemned earlier Saturday by US President Barack Obama as 'unspeakable.'

Obama said that, 30 years after 'his father massacred tens of thousands of innocent Syrian men, women, and children in Hama, Bashar al-Assad has demonstrated a similar disdain for human life and dignity.'

Al-Assad 'has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community,' Obama said.

Omar Idlibi, the spokesman for the Syrian Local Coordination Committees, told dpa in Beirut that government forces started the 'massacre' by shelling three residential buildings in the neighbourhood of Khalidiyeh in Homs.

'More than 350 mortar shells fell on the three buildings. I know those buildings well. I have been there many times. One of the buildings comprised 18 apartments. It was totally destroyed. The other two were heavily damaged,' Idlibi said.

According to him, the shelling focused on an area surrounding the gardens of Olwa, a rallying point for anti-regime protesters.

He expected the death toll to rise as there were an estimated 1,050 people wounded, some in a critical condition.

'Hospitals are unable to treat many wounded. They lack enough blood and medical staff,' Idlibi said, adding that many of the injured were women and children.

Syrian state media denied that a massacre had taken place in Homs and accused Arab television stations of fabricating the news.

It is hard to verify news from Syria as the authorities have barred most foreign media from entering the country.

In the aftermath of the reported assault, Syrians living abroad stormed their country's embassies in several European and Arab countries.

They assaulted the embassies in Cairo, London, Kuwait City and Tripoli.

Other angry protesters rallied outside the Syrian missions in Germany, Greece and the United States.