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maddezmom

(135,060 posts)
Thu Jun 7, 2012, 10:09 AM Jun 2012

Dozens dead in new Syria massacre

Source: UKPA

Dozens dead in new Syria massacre
(UKPA) – 1 hour ago 
Scores of people have died in a new massacre in the central Hama province of Syria, according to opposition groups.
The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights said "dozens" were killed overnight in Mazraat al-Qubair on the outskirts of Hama, but the group, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, is still documenting names.
The Local Co-ordination Committees group had a far higher death toll, saying more than 78 people were killed, including many women and children. It said pro-government militiamen known as shabiha first shelled the farming area in Mazraat al-Qubair and then went in and killed the residents.
It said some of the dead were stabbed to death while other bodies were burned.
Syria's main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, also said 78 people were killed. It said 35 were from the same family and more than half were women and children. It said the militiamen converged on Qubair from neighbouring pro-regime villages. It said some of the dead were killed execution-style, others were attacked with knives.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jnAU8GyuFHKweu8E-JYg8xRL5BWQ?docId=N0133911339059916952A



By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press – 4 minutes ago 
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops blocked United Nations observers Thursday from reaching the site of a new mass killing where the opposition claims regime forces slaughtered at least 78 people including women and children, the chief of the U.N. monitoring mission said.
Syria denied the opposition claims as "absolutely baseless." Syrian state TV denied obstructing the observers work and said the monitors had successfully reached Mazraat al-Qubair — a farming area in the central Hama province and site of the latest killings.
The reports came just weeks after more than 100 people were killed in one day in a cluster of villages known as Houla in central Homs province, many of them children and women gunned down in their homes. U.N. investigators blamed pro-government gunmen for at least some of the killings, but the Syrian regime denied responsibility and blamed rebels for the deaths.

More: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jiOFygruiYBOFmwuklEWAHk7DK-A?docId=073790cad7af45bebf60fdf461fee850
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pampango

(24,692 posts)
1. Juan Cole: It's becoming a Syrian government strategy when it assaults a city
Thu Jun 7, 2012, 11:44 AM
Jun 2012

Activists accused the Syrian Baath Party of committing yet another massacre on Wednesday, this time at Qubair in Hama Province. Around 100 are said to have been killed. In what has become a modus operandi, it is alleged that Syrian artillery pulled up and bombarded the town, which had sided with the rebels, and gave cover for the pro-regime shabiha militia, which moved in with guns and knives. About 20 of those killed were children, and another 20 were women.

The news came as the Russian foreign minister warned that any intervention in Syria would bring catastrophe in its wake. China reaffirmed that it is on the same page as Russia.

Looks as though this thing is going to go on for a while.

http://www.juancole.com/2012/06/100-dead-in-fresh-syrian-massacre.html

In the past Cole has likened Syria today with Czechoslovakia in 1968 when the USSR sent in tanks to stop the Prague Spring. It's a horrible situation but there is little that anyone can do about it. In both cases it is extremely sad for the citizens involved, but in the long run they did and will triumph.

Eugene

(61,900 posts)
2. Syria UN team 'shot at' near Qubair 'massacre site'
Thu Jun 7, 2012, 01:10 PM
Jun 2012

Source: BBC

7 June 2012 Last updated at 16:29 GMT

Syria UN team 'shot at' near Qubair 'massacre site'

The head of the UN has said monitors trying to reach the Syrian village of Qubair, where 78 people are said to have been killed, were fired upon.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Ban Ki-moon condemned the Qubair killings as "shocking and sickening".

UN envoy Kofi Annan said his peace plan for Syria was not being implemented despite being accepted by Damascus.

The opposition blames the killings at Qubair on pro-government forces but the government accuses "terrorists".

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18352281

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
3. I love how the Syrian gov't keeps blaming some unknown "other" and pretend
Thu Jun 7, 2012, 01:33 PM
Jun 2012

they're completely powerless to stop it...

 

may3rd

(593 posts)
4. Turkey needs to get serious on Syria
Thu Jun 7, 2012, 02:01 PM
Jun 2012

They can see Damascus from their front porch. Obama only needs to give the nod.
But what will it take for him to give the nod ?

 

Comrade Grumpy

(13,184 posts)
7. Syria isn't Libya.
Thu Jun 7, 2012, 05:31 PM
Jun 2012

A Turkish invasion would make what's happened so far look like a picnic. Careful what you wish for.

 

Alamuti Lotus

(3,093 posts)
8. perhaps my point was too subtle to be understood by some
Thu Jun 7, 2012, 06:17 PM
Jun 2012

by conservative estimates, the Turkish military has killed over 60,000 people in its struggle with Kurdish separatists, with something around 1,000,000 (or possibly as high as 3,000,000) people displaced during the course of the fight. That's almost exponentially greater than what the Syrian Baathis are accused of in the current struggle, by even the most discredited sources of sectarian hyperbole. Bear in mind, the Republic of Turkey has done all this with the enthusiastic support of the NATO/GCC powers foaming at the mouth for a foreign invasion of Syria.

So then, by virtue of their higher body count and the support of various hypocrites, wahhabi dictators, and western financial and military institutions, Turkey is the white knight to save the cause de jour by invading Syria?

This interventionist nonsense is epic, even by the high standards set by previous interventionist nonsense.

And I really can't tell if you're using the NATO Republic of Libya as an argument in favor of invasion here..

Eugene

(61,900 posts)
10. Syria Qubair: Bloody traces of massacre seen in village
Fri Jun 8, 2012, 10:21 AM
Jun 2012

Source: BBC

8 June 2012 Last updated at 14:13 GMT

Syria Qubair: Bloody traces of massacre seen in village

The smell of burnt flesh and evidence of bloodshed have greeted a BBC correspondent entering the village of Qubair in Syria, scene of a massacre.

Our correspondent, travelling with UN monitors, found buildings gutted and burnt, but no sign of people in the tiny village near the city of Hama.

Violence continues across Syria, with reports that the central city of Homs came under heavy shelling.

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Clandestine activists say government forces removed many of the bodies while the UN observers were being hindered from reaching the village on Thursday, coming under fire at one stage.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18364674
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