Syria authorities, opposition trade blame in civilian deaths

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Beirut— Dozens of civilians were murdered in the strife-torn city of Homs, the Syrian government and opposition activists said Monday, as diplomats in New York and elsewhere struggled to forge terms for a possible cease-fire.

Each side in the Syrian conflict blamed the other for the latest carnage in Homs, which has suffered the highest number of casualties in the almost yearlong rebellion against President Bashar Assad.

Opposition advocates said security services killed at least 53 people Sunday, all but six of them women and children. Many had their throats slit, the opposition said, and most were from the Homs neighborhood of Karm Zeitoun, where armed rebels have clashed with government security forces.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency in turn reported that "terrorist armed groups" in Homs had kidnapped and killed "scores of civilians," mutilated their bodies and filmed the corpses.

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-syria-homs-20120313,0,5612044.story

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The story says the circumstances of the killings remain unclear.

The New York Times has basically the same story, under the much more inflammatory headline, "Massacre Reported in Homs, Raising Pressure for Foreign Intervention in Syria."

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. auto kick

[David__77]

2. There are sectarian civilian gangs on both sides.

Salafists are chanting for the death of the Alawites and the expulsion of the Christians, and, yes, there are attacks by Alawite gangs as well. There are attacks against pro-government Sunnis, and attacks against anti-government minorities.