Dozens of civilians were killed in cold blood in the Syrian city of Homs, opposition activists and Syrian state media said on Mar 12 although they disputed responsibility for what both sides called a massacre.
The carnage in Homs, as well as a military assault on the north-western city of Idlib, coincided with a weekend peace mission by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who left Damascus on Mar 11 without agreement on a truce or humanitarian access. “The terrorist armed groups have kidnapped scores of civilians in the city of Homs, central Syria, killed, and mutilated their corpses and filmed them to be shown by media outlets,” state news agency SANA said on its website. Footage posted by opposition activists on YouTube showed men, women and children lying dead in a blood-drenched room.
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a grassroots opposition network, said at least 45 women and children had been stabbed and burned in the Homs district of Karm Al-Zeitoun. It said another seven people were slain in the city’s Jobar district, which adjoins the former rebel bastion of Baba Amr. Activists accused Alawite militia loyal to President Bashar Assad of carrying out the killings under the protection of regular Syrian military forces.
The 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will send humanitarian assistance to Syria after Damascus gave its consent to the move, the Jeddah-based organisation announced on Mar 12. The OIC is currently holding consultations with member countries to discuss a request from Indonesia for an emergency meeting of the organisation’s executive committee at foreign minister level to discuss the situation in Syria.