BEIRUT — At least 200 people were massacred by government soldiers and militia fighters in the village of Tremseh in western Syria on Thursday, the highest death toll from a single attack since the country’s uprising began in March 2011, according to opposition activists.
The government-run Syrian Arab News Agency also reported the attack but blamed the killings on “terrorists.”
Details of the attack could not be independently confirmed because the Syrian government has severely restricted journalists’ access.
As reports of the massacre trickled out of Syria, the U.N. Security Council met on Thursday, with Russia and Western nations offering rival draft resolutions to deal with the crisis. Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Igor Pankin, told reporters that any further sanctions against the Syrian government would be a “red line.”
The mandate for a U.N. observer team in Syria runs out on July 20 unless the Security Council votes to extend its mission.
Kofi Annan, the U.N. special envoy to Syria, said Friday he was “shocked and appalled” by the news of the Tremseh attack. “This is in violation of the government’s undertaking to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers,” he said in a statement. He cited “the confirmed use of heavy weaponry such as artillery, tanks and helicopters.”
Regardless of how the U.N. vote plays out, pressure is mounting on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On Wednesday, the Syrian ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, defected and announced his support for the opposition.
“There is no way that [Assad] can be pushed from power without force, and the Syrian people realize this,” Fares said in an interview with al-Jazeera on Thursday.
Last week, the regime was hit with another high-level defection as Manaf Tlass, a brigadier general and confidant of Assad, also fled the country. Tlass has yet to announce his support for the opposition, but his departure represented a symbolic blow nonetheless.
The alleged massacre on Thursday appeared to be yet another sign that the conflict in Syria is taking a sectarian turn. The village of Tremseh, northwest of the city of Hama, is predominantly Sunni, while the militiamen who carried out the attack mostly belonged to Assad’s minority Alawite sect, according to opposition activists.
The attack, which one opposition group referred to as “ethnic cleansing,” started around 5 a.m. Thursday as Tremseh was shelled by government forces for about two hours, according to the Revolution Leadership Council of Damascus. Electricity and communication lines were cut off, and militiamen known as shabiha reportedly stormed the town, targeting civilians. Many civilians were killed with knives, and some bodies were burned, according to the council.
A video posted on YouTube shows a number of elderly women reportedly fleeing the town carrying small bags. Opposition activists claim several civilians were gunned down by government troops in the fields surrounding the village as they tried to flee.
The aftermath of the attack is also documented in a video posted online that shows more than a dozen bloody and mangled bodies of men laid out on a blanket as a young man chants “Allahu akbar” (God is great).
Opposition activists say Tremseh had been relatively peaceful, but there have been occasional anti-Assad protests.
A statement issued by the rebel Free Syrian Army on Thursday called the attack a “brutal and ugly massacre” and threatened Assad’s supporters. “Assad is sinking in a sea of blood,” the statement said. “Do not sink with him. You will face death and severe punishment.”
Despite a communication blackout around Tremseh, word of the attack appears to have spread inside Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that protests broke out in Damascus after morning prayers on Friday, with demonstrators condemning the killings in Tremseh.
A special correspondent in Beirut contributed to this report.
The government-run Syrian Arab News Agency also reported the attack but blamed the killings on “terrorists.”
Details of the attack could not be independently confirmed because the Syrian government has severely restricted journalists’ access.
As reports of the massacre trickled out of Syria, the U.N. Security Council met on Thursday, with Russia and Western nations offering rival draft resolutions to deal with the crisis. Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Igor Pankin, told reporters that any further sanctions against the Syrian government would be a “red line.”
The mandate for a U.N. observer team in Syria runs out on July 20 unless the Security Council votes to extend its mission.
Kofi Annan, the U.N. special envoy to Syria, said Friday he was “shocked and appalled” by the news of the Tremseh attack. “This is in violation of the government’s undertaking to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers,” he said in a statement. He cited “the confirmed use of heavy weaponry such as artillery, tanks and helicopters.”
Regardless of how the U.N. vote plays out, pressure is mounting on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. On Wednesday, the Syrian ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, defected and announced his support for the opposition.
“There is no way that [Assad] can be pushed from power without force, and the Syrian people realize this,” Fares said in an interview with al-Jazeera on Thursday.
Last week, the regime was hit with another high-level defection as Manaf Tlass, a brigadier general and confidant of Assad, also fled the country. Tlass has yet to announce his support for the opposition, but his departure represented a symbolic blow nonetheless.
The alleged massacre on Thursday appeared to be yet another sign that the conflict in Syria is taking a sectarian turn. The village of Tremseh, northwest of the city of Hama, is predominantly Sunni, while the militiamen who carried out the attack mostly belonged to Assad’s minority Alawite sect, according to opposition activists.
The attack, which one opposition group referred to as “ethnic cleansing,” started around 5 a.m. Thursday as Tremseh was shelled by government forces for about two hours, according to the Revolution Leadership Council of Damascus. Electricity and communication lines were cut off, and militiamen known as shabiha reportedly stormed the town, targeting civilians. Many civilians were killed with knives, and some bodies were burned, according to the council.
A video posted on YouTube shows a number of elderly women reportedly fleeing the town carrying small bags. Opposition activists claim several civilians were gunned down by government troops in the fields surrounding the village as they tried to flee.
The aftermath of the attack is also documented in a video posted online that shows more than a dozen bloody and mangled bodies of men laid out on a blanket as a young man chants “Allahu akbar” (God is great).
Opposition activists say Tremseh had been relatively peaceful, but there have been occasional anti-Assad protests.
A statement issued by the rebel Free Syrian Army on Thursday called the attack a “brutal and ugly massacre” and threatened Assad’s supporters. “Assad is sinking in a sea of blood,” the statement said. “Do not sink with him. You will face death and severe punishment.”
Despite a communication blackout around Tremseh, word of the attack appears to have spread inside Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that protests broke out in Damascus after morning prayers on Friday, with demonstrators condemning the killings in Tremseh.
A special correspondent in Beirut contributed to this report.