Beirut (dpa) – Syrian opposition activists said Saturday that 260 people had died in a massacre by government troops in the city of Homs, which has been at the center of unrest in the country for nearly a year. The Syrian army stormed the city from various axes amid the shelling, said Ayman, a local activist. “They targeted houses in the Khalidiyeh neighborhood and people are dying under the rubble of their homes,” he said. Omar Idlibi, the spokesman of the Local Coordination Committees – an opposition Syrian group that follows developments on the ground – told dpa in Beirut that the shelling targeted three residential buildings in the Homs neighborhood of Khalidiyeh. “More than 350 mortar shells fell on the three buildings. I know those buildings well, I have been there many times, one of the buildings, which houses 18 apartments was totally destroyed, and the other two nearby ones were heavily damaged,” Idlibi said. He said that the shelling focused on an area surrounding the gardens of Olwa, where anti-regime protests usually gather. Government forces have cracked down on protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad since rallies began in mid-March. “Our activists on the ground are doing their best to get the bodies out of the destroyed building but so far they have been very slow in the operations as there has been heavy sniper fire on the area since the shelling eased off,” Idlibi said. He said that the death toll was expected to rise as there were 1,050 wounded, some in a critical condition. “Hospitals are unable to treat many wounded; they lack blood, doctors and essential supplies. Some of the injured are being treated in makeshift clinics inside the restive areas,” Idlibi said, adding that many of the wounded were women and children. He said that pro-government thugs entered one hospital in Homs, “snatched some bodies from the morgue” and arrested some wounded men despite their injuries. Syria's state media denied on Saturday that a massacre was being committed in the central province of Homs and accused Arab satellite channels of fabricating. “This is an ongoing distortion, falsification and instigation media campaign by some satellite channels,” state-run news agency SANA reported. Meanwhile, activists near the capital Damascus said that troops fired at a funeral procession, killing two, while other forces stormed the Zabadani area, near the Lebanese-Syrian border. Reports inside Syria cannot be confirmed independently, as the government has banned most international media and rights groups from entering the country. Those allowed in are mostly restricted to Damascus. According to UN estimates, more than 5,400 people have been killed since the crackdown on protesters began. The opposition has called upon on its supporters to protest in front Syrian embassies across the world. Crowds of Syrians attacked the embassies in London, Cairo, Kuwait, Athens and Berlin in protest to the government's shelling of Homs. In Berlin, they destroyed pictures of al-Assad and hung the flag of the opposition out of a window, while protesters in Cairo set fire to part of the embassy building. The Syrian National Council – a group of opposition figures in exile – called on the international community to “speak up and do something to stop the bloodshed of innocent Syrians.” The council demanded that Russia change its position regarding a UN Security Council resolution on Syria. The council was expected Saturday to vote on a revised draft resolution. Russia,a major arms supplier to Syria and its main ally, said Friday it would not agree to the draft, which is supported by European and Arab countries as well as the United States. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/wxgvL Tags: Assad, featured, Homs, Massacre Section: Latest News, Syria
