UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said he was "shocked" at the weekend massacre in Houla that left 108 people dead, many of them children, as he arrived in Damascus on Monday. Annan is to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.
Is the Houla massacre Syria's Srebrenica? And what, if anything, can the international community do about the situation now? We also look at the Irish town where they have gone back to spending punts.
The UN Security Council on Sunday strongly condemned the Syrian government for unleashing artillery and tank shelling on the town of Houla, killing at least 108 people. UN Chief Ban Ki-moon called it a "flagrant violation of international law."
Syrian opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun called on citizens Sunday to lead a “battle of liberation” after Bashar al-Assad’s government denied responsibility for the brutal killing of at least 92 people in Houla.
The Syrian government denied on Sunday that it was behind the massacre of scores of civilians, including 32 children, in the town of Houla. Damascus blamed opposition fighters for the atrocity which sparked outrage among world leaders.
World leaders joined the United Nations in demanding an urgent response on Syria after scores of civilians including 32 children were massacred by regime forces. Damascus hit back on Sunday, claiming opposition forces were behind the atrocity.
UN observers counted 92 bodies, at least 32 of which were children, in the Syrian town Houla on Saturday the day after regime forces were accused of “massacring” civilians in the town. The act has outraged the international community.
At least 90 civilians, including dozens of children have been "massacred" in the Syrian town of Houla, activists said on Saturday. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Houla was heavily bombarded by regime forces on Friday.
A UK-based human rights group said Friday that army tanks were deployed in Syria’s second city Aleppo for the first time in the country’s 14-month long popular uprising, following massive anti-regime rallies held earlier the same day.
The head of the Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, stepped down on Thursday, saying the opposition group was splintered between Islamist and secular activists and had failed to live up to the sacrifices of the Syrian people.
