Report: Rebels Responsible for Houla Massacre

[fallstuff]

Report: Rebels Responsible for Houla Massacre

It was, in the words of U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, the “tipping point” in the Syria conflict: a savage massacre of over 90 people, predominantly women and children, for which the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was immediately blamed by virtually the entirety of the Western media. Within days of the first reports of the Houla massacre, the U.S., France, Great Britain, Germany, and several other Western countries announced that they were expelling Syria’s ambassadors in protest.

But according to a new report in Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad. For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad, who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.

According to the article’s sources, the massacre occurred after rebel forces attacked three army-controlled roadblocks outside of Houla. The roadblocks had been set up to protect nearby Alawi majority villages from attacks by Sunni militias. The rebel attacks provoked a call for reinforcements by the besieged army units. Syrian army and rebel forces are reported to have engaged in battle for some 90 minutes, during which time “dozens of soldiers and rebels” were killed.

“According to eyewitness accounts,” the FAZ report continues,


the massacre occurred during this time. Those killed were almost exclusively from families belonging to Houla’s Alawi and Shia minorities. Over 90% of Houla’s population are Sunnis. Several dozen members of a family were slaughtered, which had converted from Sunni to Shia Islam. Members of the Shomaliya, an Alawi family, were also killed, as was the family of a Sunni member of the Syrian parliament who is regarded as a collaborator. Immediately following the massacre, the perpetrators are supposed to have filmed their victims and then presented them as Sunni victims in videos posted on the internet.

The FAZ report echoes eyewitness accounts collected from refugees from the Houla region by members of the Monastery of St. James in Qara, Syria. According to monastery sources cited by the Dutch Middle East expert Martin Janssen, armed rebels murdered “entire Alawi families” in the village of Taldo in the Houla region.

Already at the beginning of April, Mother Agnès-Mariam de la Croix of the St. James Monastery warned of rebel atrocities’ being repackaged in both Arab and Western media accounts as regime atrocities. She cited the case of a massacre in the Khalidiya neighborhood in Homs. According to an account published in French on the monastery’s website, rebels gathered Christian and Alawi hostages in a building in Khalidiya and blew up the building with dynamite. They then attributed the crime to the regular Syrian army. “Even though this act has been attributed to regular army forces . . . the evidence and testimony are irrefutable: It was an operation undertaken by armed groups affiliated with the opposition,” Mother Agnès-Mariam wrote.

Report: Rebels Responsible for Houla Massacre - By John Rosenthal - The Corner - National Review Online

BBC News - Syria massacre: Rebels share blame, says Russia's Lavrov

 

[Syrian Lion]

Already knew that, however some people still believe it was Alasad who will commit crimes ONE DAY BEFORE THE UN MEETING

 

[fallstuff]

Things are going to get a lot worse than as they are now.

 

[Syrian Lion]

I wonder where are the Saudi members? and Blackeagle? where are you guys?

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

A report from an unknown site. Lets see what is in the second link was posted in the first post of this thread.

BBC News - Syria massacre: Rebels share blame, says Russia's Lavrov
Syria massacre: Rebels share blame, says Russia's Lavrov

Rebels in Syria are partly responsible for the massacre of more than 100 people in the Houla region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says.

Mr Lavrov, whose government a close ally of the Syrian regime, said some victims had been killed at close range in a district controlled by rebels.

The UN condemned the killings, saying government artillery was involved.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has arrived in Damascus for talks on implementing his peace plan.

He called on "every individual with a gun" to lay down their arms.

"I have come to Syria at a critical moment in this crisis," Mr Annan said shortly after his arrival.

"I am personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla.

At a joint news conference with UK counterpart William Hague in Moscow, Mr Lavrov said that Russia was "deeply alarmed" by the massacre in Houla.

"We are dealing with a situation in which both sides evidently had a hand in the deaths of innocent people," he said.

"There is no doubt that the government used artillery and tanks and this has been reported by UN observers who have visited the scene.

"There is also no doubt that many bodies have been found with injuries from firearms received at point-blank range. So the blame must be determined objectively."

He said the causes of the massacre must be understood so that it could never be repeated.

Asked if President Bashar al-Assad could be part of the solution in Syria, he said that ending the violence was more important than who was in power.

"We do not support the Syrian government. We support the plan of Kofi Annan," he said.

The Syrian government insists the killings were carried out by "terrorists".

Russian diplomats, along with the Chinese, have previously vetoed action proposed by the Security Council.

On Monday, China also condemned the "cruel killings" but did not apportion blame to either side.

Mr Hague renewed Britain's call for Mr Assad to comply with Mr Annan's peace plan, warning of "ever increasing chaos".

Forty-nine children and 34 women were among Friday's dead, the UN has confirmed.

The BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says there is no sign that the Syrian government's behaviour on the ground has changed as a result of the Houla massacre.

Fighting in Syria has continued despite the deployment of some 280 UN observers monitoring the ceasefire brokered by Mr Annan.

On Monday, witnesses in Damascus said market-stall traders and shopkeepers had gone on strike in protest at the Houla massacre.

Security personnel later moved in and forced them to open their stalls and shops.

On Sunday the Security Council unanimously adopted the non-binding statement calling for the Syrian government to withdraw its heavy weaponry from residential areas and return them to barracks.

The statement also condemned the Houla killings, saying they involved both government artillery and gunfire at close range.

Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, accused some members of the council of trying to mislead the world.

"Neither [UN observer mission head Maj Gen Robert] Mood nor anybody else told the Security Council in the informal session that he would blame the Syrian government forces for what happened," he said.

Gen Mood told the BBC that UN monitors were continuing their investigations in Houla.

Mr Annan arrived in Damascus on Monday and will hold talks with President Assad on Tuesday.

Under Mr Annan's plan, both sides were to stop fighting on 12 April ahead of the deployment of monitors, while the government was to withdraw tanks and forces from civilian areas.

The unrest in Syria has killed at least 10,000 people since protests against President Assad broke out in March 2011.

 

[fallstuff]

But according to a new report in Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad. For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad,who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.


Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-...responsible-houla-massacre.html#ixzz1xQrRCMy1

 

[Syrian Lion]

@blackeagle
what are your sources ? some rats saying and blaming the government? or the Israeli media Aljazeera?

and here is one of the GERMAN article regarding Syria from FAZ
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/...ula-abermals-massaker-in-syrien-11776496.html

This is part of the article using the Chrome Translator

According to the eyewitnesses to the massacre had occurred during this period. Had been killed almost exclusively families and the Alawite minority Shiite Hulas, which is more than ninety percent are Sunni. Thus, several dozen members of a family were slaughtered, which had in recent years by Sunni converted to Shiite Islam. Killed were also members of the Alawite family Shomaliya and the family of a Sunni member of parliament, because this was considered a collaborator. Immediately after the massacre, the perpetrators would have filmed their victims, they issued a Sunni victims and spread the videos via the Internet. Although representatives of the Syrian government confirmed this version, but pointed out that the government had agreed not to speak publicly of Alawites and Sunnis. President Bashar al Assad is a member of the Alawites, the opposition is supported mainly by the Sunni majority.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Houla massacre an ‘ugly crime’: Assad

BEIRUT (AP): Syrian Pre*sident Bashar Assad denied Sunday that his government had anything to do with last week’s gruesome Houla massacre, saying not even “monsters” would carry out such an ugly crime.
In a televised speech to parliament, Assad said his country is facing a “real war” and he blamed terrorists and extremists for the bloodshed. He expressed horror over last week’s massacre in the central Houla region, which killed more than 100 people, nearly half of them children.
“If we don’t feel the pain the pain that squeezes our hearts, as I felt it, for the cruel scenes — especially the children — then we are not human beings,” Assad said in his first comments on the massacre. His last public address was in January.
Assad, 46, denies that there is a popular will behind the uprising, saying foreign extremists and terrorists are driving the revolt.

His remarks suggest he is still standing his ground, despite widespread international condemnation over his deadly crackdown on dissent. Although his words reflected many of the same general points of his previous speeches — blaming terrorists and extremists, vowing to protect national security — his comments on Houla were widely anticipated.

“We have to fight terrorism for the country to heal,” Assad said Sunday. “We will not be lenient. We will be forgiving only for those who renounce terrorism.”

The opposition and the government have exchanged accusations over the Houla killings, each blaming the other. UN investigators have said there are strong suspicions that pro-regime gunmen are responsible for at least some of the killings.

The revolt began last March with mostly peaceful protests, but a ferocious government crackdown led many in the opposition to take up arms. Now, the conflict has morphed into an armed insurgency.
“A battle was forced on us, and the result was this bloodshed that we are seeing,” Assad said.
Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, still has a firm grip on power in Syria some 15 months into a revolt that has torn at the country’s fabric and threatened to undermine stability in the Middle East.

Activists say as many as 13,000 people have died in the violence. One year after the revolt began, the UN put the toll at 9,000, but hundreds more have died since. A cease-fire plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan is violated by both sides every day. Fears also have risen that the violence could spread and provoke a regional conflagration.

A group known as the Free Syrian Army is determined to bring down the regime by force of arms, targeting military checkpoints and other government sites. A UN observer team with nearly 300 members has done little to quell the bloodshed.

Assad has acknowledged there are genuine calls for reform, although the opposition says he has offered only cosmetic changes that do little to change a culture where any whisper of dissent could lead to arrest and torture.
In Sunday’s speech, Assad ridiculed protesters over their calls for freedom.
“This freedom that they called for has turned into the (human) remains of our sons and this democracy that they talked about is now drowning in our blood,” he said.

UNHRC Condemns Syria for Houla Massacre


The UN Human Rights Council called on Friday for an investigation into the killing of more than 100 civilians in the Houla region of Syria, and condemned Syria for the massacre.

According to a report in the BBC, the forum passed the resolution with a big majority and called on investigators to identify the perpetrators. Evidence could potentially be used in future criminal prosecutions, the report said.

The UN Human Rights Council, the world's top human rights body, met on Friday in emergency session - the fourth time it has done so to discuss Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

In the vote, 41 members voted in favor of the resolution condemning Syria, while Russia, China and Cuba voted against it. Two other countries abstained and one was absent.

The resolution also specifies that there should be an “international, transparent, independent and prompt investigation” into the massacre.

On Thursday, Syria blamed up to 800 rebel fighters for the massacre in Houla. The accusations starkly contradicted accounts of witnesses cited by UN investigators who blamed “shabiha”, the gunmen who operate on behalf of President Bashar Assad's regime, for the massacre in the Houla region.

Facing international outrage over the killings, Damascus launched its own investigation into the deaths. At a news conference, Qassem Jamal Suleiman, who headed the government's investigation into the massacre, categorically denied any regime role. He claimed that hundreds of rebel gunmen carried out the slaughter, after launching a coordinated attack on five security checkpoints.

The UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, said he was frustrated at the continued violence despite the acceptance by all sides of his six-point peace plan, under which a ceasefire came into force in April.

Earlier, the head of the Free Syrian Army pressed Annan to formally announce his peace plan has failed - and to release the rebels from any commitment to honor the truce.

Colonel Riad Al Asaad, who is based in Turkey, also contradicted a statement by the rebels inside Syria who issued President Bashar Assad an ultimatum to abide by the conditions of Annan’s plan by noon on Friday.

“There is no deadline, but 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,” Asaad told Al Jazeera television.

Meanwhile, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said the killings in Houla may amount to crimes against humanity.

She urged the international community to “make all efforts to end impunity” and “ensure accountability for perpetrators" of such “atrocities,” the BBC quoted her as having said.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

 

[Syrian Lion]

Blackeagle your ARTICLE SAYS SUSPICION, IN DIPLOMACY WORLD AND TERMS THAT MEANS NOTHING, SUSPICIONS MEANS LIKE THINKING, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THE WEST TO THINK? THEY ARE THE CRIMINALS WHO COMMITTED THE CRIME, THEIR SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM IS THEIR CRIME, AND YOU ARE WITH THEM.

Plus all that were killed were ALAWITES

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

But according to a new report in Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad. For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad,who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.


Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/world-...responsible-houla-massacre.html#ixzz1xQrRCMy1

Syria Houla massacre: Survivors recount horror



Survivors of the massacre in Syria's Houla region have told the BBC of their shock and fear as regime forces entered their homes and killed their families.


Several witnesses said they hid or played dead to survive.

Most claimed that the army and the feared shabiha militia carried out the atrocities, though the regime insisted "armed terrorists" were to blame.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has arrived in Damascus for talks on implementing his peace plan.

Russia, which has twice blocked UN Security Council resolutions backing action against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, said on Monday that both sides bore responsibility for Friday's massacre.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18245225

Guys pls, don't let them delude you, keep your minds and eyes wide open.

 

[Syrian Lion]

Blackeagle

do you know what Alawites are? all the victims of Houla massacre were Alawites.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Blackeagle your ARTICLE SAYS SUSPICION, IN DIPLOMACY WORLD AND TERMS THAT MEANS NOTHING, SUSPICIONS MEANS LIKE THINKING, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THE WEST TO THINK? THEY ARE THE CRIMINALS WHO COMMITTED THE CRIME, THEIR SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM IS THEIR CRIME, AND YOU ARE WITH THEM.

Plus all that were killed were ALAWITES

The Houla Region or Houla Plain (Arabic: الحولة‎ al-Ḥūlāh) is a town made up of three villages in the Syrian Homs Governorate, north of the city of Homs. The villages, Taldou, Kafr Laha and Taldahab each have 25–30,000 inhabitants.[1] The settlement is essentially a Sunni town surrounded by Alawite villages.[2]
One of the villages, Taldou, (alternatively spelt "Teldo", "Taldau", "Taldo", "Taldaw", "Taldao")[3] is located in the outskirts of Houla.[4] The biggest village in the Houla Region has about 38,000 inhabitants and is called Kafr Laha, (Arabic: كفرلاها&#8206.[citation needed]
In May 2012, the two villages Taldou and al-Shoumarieh[5] were the location of a major massacre of civilians and continued fighting between the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian military.[3][4]
Houla - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Syrian Lion]

The Houla Region or Houla Plain (Arabic: الحولة‎ al-Ḥūlāh) is a town made up of three villages in the Syrian Homs Governorate, north of the city of Homs. The villages, Taldou, Kafr Laha and Taldahab each have 25–30,000 inhabitants.[1] The settlement is essentially a Sunni town surrounded by Alawite villages.[2]
One of the villages, Taldou, (alternatively spelt "Teldo", "Taldau", "Taldo", "Taldaw", "Taldao")[3] is located in the outskirts of Houla.[4] The biggest village in the Houla Region has about 38,000 inhabitants and is called Kafr Laha, (Arabic: كفرلاها&#8206.[citation needed]
In May 2012, the two villages Taldou and al-Shoumarieh[5] were the location of a major massacre of civilians and continued fighting between the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian military.[3][4]
Houla - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yup there are Alawites in Houla, Houla is a region, and its mixed with Sunni and Alawites, only one Sunni family were murdered and that was a family of a Syrian PM.

And the families that were killed were mostly PRO- GOVERNMENT

 

[Vassnti]

The only problem i see is on one side we have a UN on site inspection saying one thing on the other we have a monastary 200ks away in the south of Syria saying another

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Yup there are Alawites in Houla, Houla is a region, and its mixed with Sunni and Alawites, only one Sunni family were murdered and that was a family of a Syrian PM.

And the families that were killed were mostly PRO- GOVERNMENT

You and your regime are lying, you will not fool us. Unfortunately, some people believe the regime, the one who has slaughtered 13 k civilians, most of them are children and women. Don't believe those criminals ever.