UN envoy 'horrified' by Syria massacre

Russia blames both govt and rebels for 108 deaths

UN envoy Kofi Annan on Monday called on “every individual with a gun” in Syria to lay down arms, saying he was horrified by a weekend massacre that killed 108 people, including women and small children.

Even Syria’s staunchest ally Russia joined sweeping international criticism of the mass killings on Friday in the Houla area, saying both the government and the rebels were to blame for one of the deadliest single events in the 15-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule.

“I am personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla two days ago, which took so many innocent lives, children, women and men,” Annan said as he arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus for talks with Assad and other senior officials.

He called on all sides of the conflict to end the bloodshed.
The killings in Houla, a collection of villages in the central province of Homs, was condemned internationally although world powers differed over whether Assad’s forces were exclusively to blame.

Activists from the Houla area said the army pounded the villages with artillery and clashed with local rebels after protests on Friday.

36 killed as clashes rage

Violence raged across Syria on Monday, where at least 36 people, most of them regime forces, were reported killed as clashes erupted in several restive provinces, monitors said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes raged in several provinces and that five civilians were among those killed.