Assad denies his regime was behind Houla massacre

IN HIS first address to his country’s newly elected Syrian president Bashar al-Assad denied his regime’s culpability in the May 25th massacre of 108 civilians at Houla in central Syria. He said that not even “monsters” would commit such a vicious crime.

He reiterated an accusation that it had been carried out by “ter-rorists” directed from abroad and warned that Syria is threatened by a “real war . . . A battle was forced upon us, and the result was this bloodshed.

“We have to fight terrorism for the country to heal.We will not be lenient. We will be forgiving only with those who renounce terrorism.”

The opposition has charged government troops with shelling the Houla area villages, killing about 20, and then ordering loyalist shabbiha militiamen to slay surviving villagers, the majority women and children.

UN monitors have confirmed that shabbiha had carried out at least some of the killings.

Dr Assad’s address, a reiteration of earlier charges of external intervention, coincided with the call by the Arab League, which met in Qatar, to take action to halt the violence in Syria and a pro- posal by France, which led the air campaign against the former Libyan regime, for UN-authorised military action.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton urged Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to work together to “help Syrians with a serious political transition strategy,” an official stated. Russia and China have refused to accept foreign intervention in Syria and have tried to protect Damascus from Western sanctions.

Clashes continued in rebel-held areas yesterday while on Satur- day, 89 people were reported killed, including 57 soldiers, the largest number of military fatalities since the revolt began in March last year.

Meanwhile, northern Lebanon was calm after two days of fighting between pro- and anti-Assad factions in the port city of Tripoli took the lives of 15 people and wounded 52, in spill-over from the Syrian conflict.

The Lebanese army moved in to separate the two sides which had been using assault rifles, machine guns, grenades and mortars in the battle, said to be the fiercest in Tripoli since the 1975-90 civil war.

The latest clashes began after the arrest of a Lebanese man, Shady Mawlawi, an outspoken critic of President Assad.