Syrian govt denies involvement in carnage

DAMASCUS - The Syrian government has denied involvement of government troops in a latest horrifying carnage in the country, in which more than 100 people were killed.

The UN Security Council Sunday held an emergency meeting on the incident, condemning the carnage in the central Syrian village of Houla near Homs city.

The death toll of the slaughter, which took place on Friday and Saturday, was confirmed to be 108, including 32 children.

Earlier Sunday, Syria denied involvement of government troops in the massacre, while blaming "hundreds of heavily armed gunmen" who attacked soldiers in the area for the killings.

"We condemn with the strongest term this terrorist massacre," said Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdessi at a press conference, adding the government has formed a military judicial committee to conduct investigations and the results would appear within three days.

A child holds a banner as she participates in an anti-Syria regime protest held by Bahrainis at United Nation Headquarters in Manama, May 27, 2012.[Photo/Agencies]

Makdessi stressed no government tanks or artillery had entered Houla and the Syrian forces were in a state of self-defense, contrary to what the opposition had claimed that government troops and pro-government militias carried out the slaughtering.

"The suspicious concurrence in the attacks that have come in parallel with the visit of UN special envoy Kofi Annan to Syria aims to hit the political process," Makdissi said, adding the "brutal killing" was not the virtues of the Syrian army.

On the same day, Bashar Ja'afari, the Syrian permanent representative to the UN, said the massacre was "appalling and unjustifiable," and was "condemned by my government in the strongest terms possible."

Ja'afari made the statement outside the chamber of the UN Security Council shortly after the 15-nation council issued a press statement to condemn the massacre.

He said those responsible for the crime would be brought to justice by the Syrian government according to the Syrian law.

Meanwhile, he asked the Security Council to discuss the problem of those who are "arming, financing, training and protecting the armed terrorist groups," which Damascus blamed for violence and killings in Syria.

Aside from its "strong condemnation," Russia was skeptical about suggestions that the Syrian government used such heavy weapons as tanks and artillery in the deadly attacks.

"We need to establish whether it was the Syrian authorities... before we agree on something," Russian deputy permanent representative to the UN Alexander Pankin told reporters before he entered the council chamber for the Security Council emergency meeting.

"There are substantial grounds to believe that the majority of those who were killed were either slashed, cut by knives, or executed at point blank distance."

"The number of those wounded does not correspond to what you would expect in terms of destruction," Pankin said. "You cannot have one or two houses destructed and 500 wounded with shrapnel."

Moscow also called for a thorough investigation into the cause of the tragedy.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote in his Twitter microblog that the "tragic events" which led to "death of dozens of people" in Syria deserved condemnation, and "we must thoroughly examine their causes."

"There is information that the wounds were not caused by shelling. Let us wait for the objective assessment of the UN mission," Gatilov tweeted.

In a letter to the Security Council, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that the Houla massacre in Syria had added to pressure on UN observers, as they "are facing increasing criticism for not stopping the violence and, in some quarters, even being blamed for an increase."

"There is a misconception, difficult to correct, about the role of unarmed military observers and what they can and cannot do," he added.

The massacre was not the end of violence in Syria.

Reports quoted activists as saying that at least 30 people were killed on Sunday in the city of Hama.

On the same day, a roadside bomb tore through a security forces' vehicle in the Syrian capital of Damascus, injuring five security members and setting the vehicle ablaze, witnesses said.