Fighting spreads in Syria as Kofi Annan begs for end to violence
PEACE envoy Kofi Annan yesterday called on the Syrian government to take “bold steps” to resolve the country’s crisis without further bloodshed.
But even as he denounced the massacre of at least 108 people – including dozens of children – in the Syrian town of Houla, more violence was spreading throughout the country.
Assad’s forces killed at least 41 people in an artillery assault on the city of Hama, activists said, shortly after the UN Security Council condemned the killings at Houla and put at least partial blame on Assad’s heavy weaponry.
The government, however, continues to blame the atrocity on knife-wielding Islamists.
Yesterday foreign secretary William Hague’s plea for Russia to change its stance on Syria appeared to fall on deaf ears.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that “both sides” in Syria’s conflict were responsible for the deaths at Houla. By declining to blame the government alone, Russia – and China – kept their distance from Western and Sunni-led Arab countries that say Assad must step down.
With international criticism growing of Assad’s methods in trying to crush a 14-month-old uprising, UN and Arab League envoy Annan visited Damascus for talks on his faltering peace plan.
He called on the government to show it is “serious in its intention to resolve this crisis peacefully” before adding: “This message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun.”