Mass Killing Reported in Northern Syria, Apparently a Rebel Ambush

BEIRUT, Lebanon — More than 25 Syrian men were found shot to death on Friday near the northern city of Aleppo in circumstances that remained unclear, but appeared to be a rebel ambush, according to accounts from both Syrian state media and opposition activists.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency reported that armed terrorist gangs, the standard government description for all opposition forces, carried out what it described as a brutal massacre of the men, described as kidnap victims, in Daret Azzeh, in western Aleppo province.

Most of the men had been shot dead and their bodies mutilated, the official account said, with some of the kidnap victims still missing. It did not provide any other details.

The opposition described the event as the consequence of a military skirmish, with members of the Free Syrian Army carrying out a surprise attack on a group of men that included suspected shabiha, the feared shadowy pro-government militia members who often deploy in conjunction with the armed forces.

“The armed opposition in the area ambushed a number of cars,” said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-government group with networks of contacts inside Syria.

A video that the Observatory posted online from activists, said to have been recorded in Daret Azzeh, showed carnage, with bloodied corpses piled around a white pickup truck riddled with bullet holes. The circumstances of their killing was not immediately clear, nor what might have happened to the other vehicles.

Many of the corpses were wearing military fatigues or black clothes, a trademark of the shabiha. The contents of the video could not be independently verified. The government of President Bashar al-Assad, which has been seeking to crush the uprising by force since it began as a peaceful protest in March 2011, sharply limits the access of reporters and other independent observers to the country.

There have been clashes in western Aleppo province all week, with the Syrian forces trying to regain control, said the Observatory. Government forces have lost control of most of the rural areas in Aleppo province but carry out raids continuously to keep the opposition from holding territory.

Other activists in contact with the area corroborated that a mass killing had taken place, saying it was carried out by the local branch of the Free Syrian Army, a loose coalition of autonomous opposition forces in every area.

Accounts of the killings were reported as Turkey’s government said it had lost contact with a military aircraft on patrol over the Mediterranean near the Turkey-Syria border. Turkish news agencies reported it had crashed, and some quoted unidentified sources as saying it had been accidentally shot down by Syrian air defense units and that Syria had apologized. There was no official confirmation from either Turkey or Syria, formerly cordial neighbors whose relationship has deteriorated badly since the conflict in Syria began 16 months ago.

The mass killings came less than a week after unarmed United Nations monitors in Syria suspended their work because of relentless violations of a two-month-old cease-fire and peace plan that has all but collapsed.

Kofi Annan, the special envoy of the United Nations and Arab League who negotiated that plan, issued a new plea on Friday for intensified international pressure on the antagonists in the conflict.

“It’s time for countries of influence to raise the level of pressure on the parties on the ground and to persuade them to stop the killing and start the talking,” Mr. Annan told a news conference at the Geneva offices of the United Nations.

Elsewhere in Syria, dozens of people were killed on Friday during clashes and protests around the country, according to opposition accounts. Activists took to the streets after Friday prayers in different cities including Aleppo, where eight protesters died in gunfire, according to the Observatory.

For the third consecutive day, the Red Cross and Red Crescent were unable to enter the central city of Homs to evacuate injured and civilians despite both sides ostensibly agreeing to a cease-fire.

The shelling on Friday proved too intense for them to enter, activists said.

In Homs, Hadi Abdullah, a 26-year-old  member of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an activist group, said he had lost faith in the ability of the Red Cross and all other international organizations to intercede. They are, he said, “unable to rescue the injured or evacuate the families – many of those injured have now only a few days to survive.”

Many families remain trapped in Homs by the continuous shelling and bombing, with relief organizations unable to channel medical aid or food to the area,  he said. Some families are living on dates alone because that is all they have. His only power source was a car battery, said Mr. Abdullah, in an interview via Skype.

Reporting was contributed by Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul and Rick Gladstone from New York.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/world/middleeast/mass-killing-reported-in-syria-apparently-a-rebel-ambush.html