Houla massacre survivor tells how his family were slaughtered

Syrian boy, 11, claims he played dead to escape pro-Assad gunmen who killed five members of family in Houla

• Martin Chulov in Beirut
• guardian.co.uk, 

Unverified footage purports to show the shelling of Houla in Syria on Friday, which left 108 people dead. Warning: graphic images Link to this video

An 11-year old boy has described how he smeared himself in the blood of his slain brother and played dead as loyalist gunmen burst into his home and killed six members of his family during the start of a massacre in Houla, central Syria.

The young survivor's chilling account emerged as Russia continued to blame both Syrian troops and opposition militias for the weekend rampage in the town that left at least 116 people dead and prompted fresh outrage against the regime's crackdown.

It comes on the eve of Kofi Annan's scheduled meeting on Tuesday in Damascus with Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, which is seen as the last hope of salvaging the UN special envoy's failed peace plan.

Speaking to the Guardian, the young survivor said government troops arrived in his district at around 3am on Saturday, several hours after shells started falling on Houla.

"They came in armoured vehicles and there were some tanks," said the boy. "They shot five bullets through the door of our house. They said they wanted Aref and Shawki, my father and my brother. They then asked about my uncle, Abu Haidar. They also knew his name."

Shivering with fear, the boy stood towards the back of the entrance to his family home as gunmen then shot dead every family member in front of him.

"My mum yelled at them," said the boy. "She asked: 'What do you want from my husband and son?' A bald man with a beard shot her with a machine gun from the neck down. Then they killed my sister, Rasha, with the same gun. She was five years old. Then they shot my brother Nader in the head and in the back. I saw his soul leave his body in front of me.

"They shot at me, but the bullet passed me and I wasn't hit. I was shaking so much I thought they would notice me. I put blood on my face to make them think I'm dead."

Apparently convinced their work was finished, the gunmen moved on to other areas of the house, from which they proceeded to loot the family's possessions, the boy said. "They stole three televisions and a computer," he said. "And then they got ready to leave."

On the way out of the house, the boy said the gunmen found the three men they had been looking for. They killed them all. "They shot my father and uncle. And then they found Aref, my oldest brother, near the door. They shot him dead too."

The Guardian contacted the boy through a town elder who is a member of the Syrian Revolutionary Council and is now caring for him. We are unable to independently verify the account and have chosen not to name the boy for security reasons.

The boy said he waited until the armoured personnel carriers had moved from his street, then ran to his uncle's house nearby, where he hid. He said the same militiamen knocked on the door minutes later, asking his uncle if he knew who lived in the house that they just rampaged through.

"They didn't know he was my relative and when they were talking to him they were describing six people dead in my house. They included me. They thought I was dead."

Throughout a 15-minute conversation, the boy remained calm and detached until he was pressed on how he knew the gunmen were pro-regime militia men, known as al-Shabiha. The irregular forces have been widely accused by residents of Houla of entering homes and slaughtering families. At least 32 of the dead are children and many of them appear to have been killed at close range.

"They got out of tanks and they had guns and knives," he repeated. "Some of them were wearing civilian clothes, some army clothes.

"Why are you asking me who they were? I know who they were. We all know it. They were the regime army and people who fight with them. That is true."

Damascus has denied its forces were responsible for the massacre, and again blamed terrorist groups. Houla is a stronghold of the Free Syria Army in Homs province. Many military defectors have returned there to live with their families.

Damascus suggested on Monday a UN inquiry should be established to verify what took place in Houla.

Additional reporting by Hala Kilani

The Guardian

U.N. condemns Syrian killings; toll rises to 108

Syrians protest massacre

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Security Council singles out "government artillery and tank shelling" in massacre
• "Severe physical abuse," gunfire also blamed
• Syria says the statement leaves blame ambiguous, promises to investigate
• But Germany says the deaths bear "a clear footprint of the government"

(CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council on Sunday condemned the weekend massacre of more than 100 civilians in Syria, with members casting blame on government forces for the deaths.

U.N. military observers said the toll from the Friday assault on the village of Houla included dozens of women and children. After consultations Sunday afternoon, Security Council members condemned "attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighborhood," as well as the killings of civilians by close-range gunshots and "severe physical abuse."

"Such outrageous use of force against the civilian population constitutes a violation of applicable international law and of the commitments of the Syrian government under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 2042 and 2043 to cease violence in all its forms, including the cessation of use of heavy weapons in population centers," said Azerbaijan's Deputy Ambassador Tofig Musayev, who presided over the meeting. The members demanded that Syrian troops immediately pull its troops and heavy weapons back from cities in accordance with an April cease-fire.

Read Ban Ki-moon's letter to the Security Council

Bashar Jaafari, Syria's U.N. ambassador, told reporters the statement wasn't blaming his government for all the killings, since the statement left the cause of most deaths ambiguous. He said most of the deaths were caused by gunfire, and the council statement did not specifically assign blame for those fatalities.

And Russia, a longtime ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, believes "it still remains unclear what happened and what triggered what," as Russian charge d'affaires Alexander Pankin put it.

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But German Ambassador Peter Wettig said there was "clear evidence" connecting the government to the deaths. "The evidence is not murky, and there is a clear footprint of the government in this massacre," Wettig said. And Martin Brines, the French deputy ambassador, said a briefing by the head of the U.N. observer mission in Syria "clearly shows the responsibility of the Syrian government in failing to protect its civilians as well, as attacking them directly."

U.N. observers in Syria said the toll from the Houla massacre had risen to 108 on Sunday, including 34 women and 49 children under the age of 10, said Sausan Ghosheh, the observer mission's spokeswoman. Horrific images of the bodies in Houla spread across the internet, fueling fresh protests by Syrian opposition groups in several cities.

Videos posted Sunday on YouTube show demonstrations in cities around the country, including Damascus, Daraa, Idlib, and the suburbs of Hama.

"Oh Houla, we are with you until death," protesters chanted in Daraa. And a demonstration in Idlib showed a U.N. vehicle among protesters. In the Hama suburbs, demonstrators called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

But the 14-month-old clampdown continued, with opposition activists reporting another 26 people -- including five children and three women -- killed across the country on Sunday.

Opposition activists said killings began with a mortar bombardment following Friday prayers, followed by a rampage by government-allied militias. Video posted over the weekend showed opposition activists displaying the bloodied remains of more than 10 children, including some with limbs blown off or skulls torn open. In another, medics treated a crying infant whose chest was covered in bandages.

Syria has denied its troops were behind the bloodbath in Houla, and Jafaari denounced what he called a "tsunami of lies" against his government. He called the deaths "an appalling, horrific unjustified and unjustifiable crime" and vowed Syria's government had launched a national commission to investigate them.

"Whoever committed these crimes will be held accountable by the Syrian authorities, by the Syrian government's law," he said.

In state-run media, the Syrian regime said "al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups committed two horrible massacres against a number of families in the towns of al-Shumariyeh and Taldo in the countryside of Homs province."

The state report also showed gruesome images of children spattered with blood. But CNN can not independently confirm details from Syria nor the authenticity of videos, however, as the Syrian government strictly limits access by foreign journalists.

But Alex Thompson, a reporter for Britain's ITV television network who was in Houla, said its residents appeared to be voting with their feet.

"There are lots of civilians in the rebel-held areas. They are not apparently frightened of the fighters. They are speaking openly to the United Nations," Thomson told CNN. "In the areas of the town held by the army, there is nobody -- it's a ghost town."

The Syrian crisis began in March 2011, when peaceful demonstrations modeled on the "Arab Spring" uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt sprang up across Syria. Al-Assad's government responded by turning police and troops on demonstrators -- but the protests spread across the country, with defecting soldiers taking up up arms on behalf of the opposition.

A cease-fire agreement, brokered by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's office, has been in place since April 12 as part of a six-point peace plan. But Col. Qasim Saad Eddine, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, said Saturday that it was "no longer possible to abide by the peace plan" after the Houla killings.

U.N. officials say more than 9,000 people, mostly civilians, have died and tens of thousands have been uprooted since the uprising began in March 2011. Opposition groups report a death toll of more than 11,000 people.

Sunday's Security Council session came a day ahead of a scheduled meeting between Syrian officials and Annan, the joint U.N.-Arab League special envoy on the crisis. Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague was headed to Moscow for talks in hopes of putting Russian pressure on al-Assad.

"We have had many differences of view with Russia at the Security Council, but Russia does support the Annan plan," Hague said in a statement from his office. "And so I hope Russia will redouble its efforts to get the Assad regime to implement that plan. It's not in the interests of Russia, just as it's not in the interests of anybody in the world, for Syria to descend in to an even bloodier situation and into full scale civil war and that is now the danger."

A U.N. report issued Friday said Syrian forces are still using heavy weapons in many areas despite the April cease-fire, and "The overall level of violence in the country remains quite high" despite the presence of U.N. monitors. Monitors have heard the sound of shelling in cities and towns and seen the aftereffects, their report states, while Syrian authorities say they were coming under fire from rebel troops.

Meanwhile, opposition groups effectively control "significant parts of some cities" the monitors state. But the government's stepped-up security crackdown "has led to massive violations of human rights" by Syrian troops and pro-government militias, the report states.

The United States joined the condemnation of the Sunday afternoon. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor saying the United States was horrifed by "credible reports" of the massacre, "including stabbing and ax attacks on women and children."

"These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality," Vietor said in a written statement.

Israel, meanwhile, has largely kept quiet amid the tumult of the Arab Spring in the surrounding region. But Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his "revulsion" at the killings in Syria and its allies in Iran and the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah.

"Iran and Hezbollah are an inseparable part of the Syrian atrocities and the world needs to act against them," Netanyahu said in a written statement.

Bron : CNN/ By the CNN Wire Staff