Assad's Forces 'Kill Over 200 In Syrian Town'

[danger007]

The bodies of more than 200 people, including women and children, have been found in a town close to Damascus after being killed by Syrian troops, according to opposition activists.

They said most of the victims were discovered in houses and basements of buildings in Daraya and had been shot by President Bashar al Assad's forces conducting house-to-house raids.

Pictures of Syrian army tanks said to be taken in the town also emerged.

Pro-government television has blamed terrorists for the attacks.

The official state news agency said: "Our heroic armed forces cleansed Daraya from remnants of armed terrorist groups who committed crimes against the sons of the town."

Opposition activist Abu Kinan said: "Assad's army has committed a massacre in Daraya."

Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said if confirmed, the massacre "would be an atrocity on a new scale requiring unequivocal condemnation from the entire international community".

He added that it "highlights the urgent need for international action to bring an end to the violence, end this culture of impunity and hold to account those responsible for these terrible acts".

The Daraya Coordination Committee activists' group said in a statement that among those found with shots to the head were eight members of the al Qassaa family: three children, their father and mother and three other relatives.

Their bodies were found in a residential building near Mussab bin Umeir mosque in Daraya, the group said.

Due to restrictions on non-state media, it is impossible to independently verify the accounts.

Video released by activists showed numerous bodies of young men side-by-side at the Abu Suleiman al Darani mosque in Daraya, many with what looked like gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

"A massacre," said the voice of the man who appeared to be taking the footage.

"You are seeing the revenge of Assad's forces from the people of Daraya: more than 150 bodies on the floor of this mosque."

Mohammad Hur, another activist in the town, said 36 bodies of young men were found in the morning in one building, along with several badly wounded people who could not be transferred to hospitals in the area because the army had occupied them.

"We are in the process of identifying the bodies and documenting how they died. Initial evidence shows that they were mostly shot at close range in the face, neck and head, execution style," he said.

The army overran Daraya, one of a series of large, mostly run-down Sunni Muslim towns that surround Damascus, on Saturday after three days of heavy bombardment that killed around 70 people.

The attack was part of an army campaign to regain control of the outskirts of the capital, a mixture of built up areas and farmland where rebels had regrouped and relaunched guerrilla attacks on Mr Assad's forces.

Meanwhile, Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor has confirmed that Syrian Vice President Farouk al Sharaa has not defected from the Assad government.

Tim Marshall spoke to Mr Sharaa in the Syrian capital and wrote on Twitter: "I am with the Syria Vice President. In Damascus. He has not defected."

Officials had been forced to issue repeated denials amid rumours that Mr Sharaa - the most senior Sunni Muslim in the Damascus regime - had joined the opposition.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

More than 300 bodies found in Syrian town of Darya

More than 300 bodies were found on Saturday in the town of Darya outside the Syrian capital Damascus a day after it was retaken by the Syrian army, opposition activists said, accusing President Bashar al-Assad's forces of mass summary executions.

Local activists said most bodies were found in houses and basement shelters of residential buildings and appear to have been shot dead by troops who had stormed the premises.

“Assad’s army has committed a massacre in Daraya,” said Abu Kinan, an activist in Darya, using an alias to protect himself from reprisals.

“In the last hour, 122 bodies were discovered and it appears that two dozen died from sniper fire and the rest were summarily executed by gunshots from close range,” Abu Kinan told Reuters by telephone.

The activist said he witnessed the death of an 8-year-old girl, Asma Abu al-Laban, shot by army snipers while she was in a car with her parents.

“They were trying to flee the army raids. Three bullets hit her in the back and her parents brought her to a makeshift hospital. Nothing could be done for her,” he said.

The Local Coordination Committees, an activists’ organization, said Assad’s forces killed 440 people across Syria on Saturday, including dozens of women and children, in one of the highest death tolls since the uprising against his rule broke out in March last year.

The organization, which monitors Assad’s military crackdown, said 310 people were killed in Damascus and its environs, including Daraya, 40 in the northern province of Aleppo and 28 in Syria’s Sunni tribal heartland region of Deir al-Zor.

The rest were reportedly killed in the Idlib, Deraa, Hama and Homs, outlying provinces where poverty and discontent with Assad’s minority Alawite rule have been building up since bloody repression by Assad’s father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s.

Video footage from activists showed numerous bodies of young men side-by-side at the Abu Suleiman al-Darani mosque in Daraya, many with what looked like gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

“A massacre,” said the voice of the man who appeared to be taking the footage. “You are seeing the revenge of Assad’s forces ... more than 150 bodies on the floor of this mosque.”

The official state news agency said: “Our heroic armed forces cleansed Daraya from remnants of armed terrorist groups who committed crimes against the sons of the town and scared them and sabotaged and destroyed public and private property.”

The southern fringe of Damascus is a frontline in what has snowballed over the last 17 months from anti-Assad protests into a sectarian civil war.

Syrian forces had launched a deadly assault in the southwestern belt of Damascus on Saturday, in what activists said was a new bid to crush “once and for all” the insurgency in the capital.

Combat helicopters and tanks also pounded rebel-held areas of the battered northern city of Aleppo, an AFP journalist and monitors said, as the army pressed on with its war against fighters seeking to topple Assad.

The fresh violence erupted a day after new international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi admitted he was “scared” of the enormity of the task he faces to try to end the increasingly ferocious conflict, now in its 18th month.

Brahimi, who takes over from former U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan next month, held talks with U.N. leaders in New York on Friday, saying the Syrian people “will be our first masters.”

Annan, a former U.N. chief, quit earlier this month after the failure of his six-point plan to try to bring peace, which was left in tatters by the relentless bloodshed and divisions among world powers over how to tackle the conflict.

 

[INDIC]

How much of Syria is under FSA control?

 

[danger007]

killing kid's and women...very sad....

 

[Syrian Lion]

GRAPHIC :

Syria - Daraya Massacre committed by FSA 25-08-2012 +18

 

[airmarshal]

So FSA are all angels and they are not killing the Syrians? Stop believing in western press. They lie not from thier mouth but a$$ as well.

 

[Abii]

lmao

This is akin to finding 300 dead people in Afghanistan and saying "Karzai forces kill over 300 people in xyzabad"

The FSA is comprised of Libyan, Saudi and generally foreign fighters along with local thugs, extremists and everything in between. They are being given heavy weapons and are let loose in the country.

Assad's forces have better things to do than kill children. I'm sure they would achieve more goals chopping heads off of foreign fighters than their own children.

 

[Oldman1]

lmao

This is akin to finding 300 dead people in Afghanistan and saying "Karzai forces kill over 300 people in xyzabad"

The FSA is comprised of Libyan, Saudi and generally foreign fighters along with local thugs, extremists and everything in between. They are being given heavy weapons and are let loose in the country.

Assad's forces have better things to do than kill children. I'm sure they would achieve more goals chopping heads off of foreign fighters than their own children.

You also forgot defecting Syrian military personnel as well. And Assad is doing what his father did. By creating fear.

 

[Syrian Lion]

You also forgot defecting Syrian military personnel as well. And Assad is doing what his father did. By creating fear.

You're funny, this will not create fear, it will create anger against the government, and i'm sure the government doesn't want any trouble, so why would they do that, it's the F"S"A, they killed everyone in town before they left, and then they blame the government.

 

[Abii]

You also forgot defecting Syrian military personnel as well. And Assad is doing what his father did. By creating fear.

I'm sure if Obama went to the bible belt down South and killed 300 people, the rednecks would just clam up in fear lol

The reality is that they would pick up their guns, load em up on their trucks and stick a confederate flag on the hood and ride towards Washington to get some good ol' Southern justice.

Same story in Syria. Don't give me bull crap grandpa.

 

[ptldM3]

The FSA is known for spreading propaganda and lies. In one video they claimed that they killed a Russian general they then went into details of how they did it. Afterward the Russian general went on camera and said he was alive and fine.

If this is true, I would almost certainly say that the dead are rebel fighters and not random people. In any case the whole 'Arab Spring' thing is a bunch of bullshit cooked up by people with too much time on their hands, just like the occupy wall street bums.

For people supporting FSA, one question. Should we encourage armed gangs to take over governments? Would it be okay to kill police officers and soldiers especially if it is your fellow countrymen? For the FSA supporters, do you not think that you will be shot and killed if you shoot at police officers or soldiers in any country?

The fact of the matters is that just like with all protesters a large portion of them are anarchists, that is they are simply there to start trouble. Many others join in just because they have no job and nothing better to do with their time. Many others are simply thugs and criminals that will not miss the opportunity to cause havoc. Pay attention to some of the major protests that have occurred throughout the world, many of the people in those protests have no clue as to the real cause of what they are protesting (interviews with occupy protesters come to mind).

I can start protesting to support Nazi zombie clowns and I would guarantee a bunch of supports would join in

 

[Snomannen]

Channel 4 journalist Alex Thomson says Syria rebels led me into death trap

Channel 4 journalist Alex Thomson says Syria rebels led me into death trap - Telegraph