Attack on #Syria village targeted rebels, activists: UN

DAMASCUS (AFP) - The Syrian village of Treimsa, where monitors say more than 150 people were slaughtered, bears signs of having been pounded with heavy weapons, the UN mission said on Saturday.

The homes of rebels and activists had borne the brunt, a statement added, referring to “pools and pools of blood spatters”.

Sausan Ghosheh, spokeswoman for the UN Supervision Mission in Syria, said a team of observers had visited the village in central Syria on Saturday.

“On the basis of this preliminary mission, UNSMIS can confirm that an attack, using a variety of weapons, took place in Treimsa on July 12,” she said in a statement, without specifying who may have carried out the attack.

Activists say more than 150 people were killed in Thursday’s attack, which they allege was carried out by the army, backed by pro-regime militiamen known as shabiha (“ghosts” in Arabic).

Syria’s military however said the army had killed “many terrorists” in Treimsa, but no civilians, in a “special operation… targeting armed terrorist groups and their leadership hide-outs.”

Ghosheh said a “wide range of weapons were used, including artillery, mortars and small arms.”

“The attack on Treimsa appeared targeted at specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists. There were pools of blood and blood spatters in rooms of several homes together with bullet cases.

“The UN team also observed a burned school and damaged houses with signs of internal burning in five of them.”

The number of casualties was still unclear, she added.

The Treimsa killings have triggered a global outcry against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling for urgent action to stop the bloodshed.

The head of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP it “might be the biggest massacre committed in Syria since the start of the revolution” against Assad in March 2011.

If confirmed, the 150-plus toll would exceed that of a massacre at Houla on May 25, when a pro-Assad militia and government forces were accused of killing at least 108 people.

Ghosheh said the observers planned to return to Treimsa on Sunday for further investigations.

“UNSMIS is deeply concerned about the escalating level of violence in Syria and calls on the government to cease the use of heavy weapons on population centres and on the parties to put down their weapons and choose the path of non-violence for the welfare of the Syrian people who have suffered enough,” she said.

The Observatory said earlier that Syrian troops and pro-regime militias had stormed and torched a town in southern Syria on Saturday.

Hundreds of soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked Khirbet Ghazaleh in the province of Daraa — the cradle of a 16-month uprising — amid heavy gunfire, the watchdog said.

An activist on the ground who identified himself as Bayan Ahmad gave a similar account, saying pro-regime militias has set alight houses in the town.

“The army entered without resistance as the rebel Free Syrian Army left town. The shelling has wounded dozens of people but we don’t have medical resources to treat them,” he added.

Elsewhere, a pregnant woman was among 72 people killed across the country on Saturday, the Observatory said, a day after 118 people died including dozens of civilians gunned down by troops at anti-regime protests.

Those killed were 34 civilians — including nine women and seven children — 17 rebels and at least 21 soldiers, it said.

An AFP journalist said fighting Saturday near the Turkish border between government troops and rebel fighters had left at least 10 rebels dead and 15 wounded.

Treimsa is near Al-Kubeir, where at least 55 people were killed on July 6, according to the Observatory. Like Al-Kubeir, Treimsa is a majority Sunni village situated near Alawite hamlets.

Assad belongs to the Alawite community — an offshoot of Shiite Islam — although most Syrians are Sunni.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon lashed out at the Syrian regime and called for the UN Security Council to urgently act to stop the bloodshed, as failing to do so would give “a licence for further massacres.”

The Treimsa killings have added urgency to deadlocked Security Council negotiations on a Syria resolution.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Twitter that the killings “dramatically illustrate the need for binding measures on Syria” by the council.

Western nations have proposed a resolution that would impose sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the conflict, which rights activists say has cost more than 17,000 lives.

Britain, France, the United States, Germany and Portugal have proposed a resolution that would give Assad 10 days to stop the use of heavy weapons, in line with the Annan plan, or face sanctions.

They also want to give the UN observer mission a new mandate, but for only 45 days. Their mandate ends on July 20.

Russia has rejected as unacceptable any use of sanctions. It is proposing a rival resolution that renews the mandate of UNSMIS for 90 days.

Source: Yahoo!

Russia says no to #Syria sanctions as U.N. talks begin

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it would not agree to a threat of sanctions to end the 16-month conflict in Syria as a deeply divided U.N. Security Council began negotiations on a resolution to extend a U.N. monitoring mission there.

The 15-member council must decide the future of the U.N. mission, known as UNSMIS, before July 20, when its 90-day mandate expires. UNSMIS was deployed to monitor a failed truce as part of international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

Russia has proposed extending the mission for 90 days, but Britain, the United States, France and Germany countered with a draft resolution to extend the mission for just 45 days and place Annan’s peace plan under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention. U.S. officials have said they are talking about sanctions on Syria, not military intervention.

The Security Council is currently due to vote next Wednesday.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have killed more than 15,000 people since a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters began in March 2011, some Western leaders say. Damascus says rebels have killed several thousand of its security forces.

“We are definitely against Chapter 7. Anything can be negotiated, but we do not negotiate this, this is a red line,” Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexander Pankin told reporters.

The opening stance by Russia, a key ally of Syria, was no surprise to Western diplomats. Russia and China previously vetoed U.N. resolutions designed to pressure Assad.

“They would say that at this stage wouldn’t they,” said Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant. “It’s clear that there’s very strong support for the text.”

Negotiations are unlikely to move quickly. After the first round of talks on Thursday, French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said that negotiators started 10 miles apart, and “now we are 10 miles less 5 centimetres.”

‘TIME TO ACT’

The Western-backed draft resolution in particular threatens the Syrian government with sanctions if it does not stop using heavy weapons and withdraw its troops from towns and cities within 10 days of the adoption of the resolution.

A Western diplomat, who did not want to be named, said the resolution had been drafted with the strongest possible language and action because “it’s long past time for the council to act.”

“It’s frankly outrageous that the council would leave unarmed observers twisting in the wind and not use all the tools they have at their disposal,” he said. “We’re now at the point where 100 or more people are dying a day.”

Opposition activists said more than 200 people, mostly civilians, were massacred in a Syrian army and militia onslaught in a village in the rebellious province of Hama on Thursday.

Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja’afari said on Wednesday that countries raising the threat of sanctions were not helping efforts to end the conflict and maintained that Damascus was committed to Annan’s peace plan.

Annan asked the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to make clear to Syria’s government and opposition there would be “clear consequences” for not complying with his plan to broker peace in a conflict that has killed thousands.

“The United States is determined to support him (Annan) because our experience of the last year makes it absolutely clear that the Assad regime will not do anything without additional further pressure,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday during a visit to Cambodia.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has recommended a shift in the emphasis of UNSMIS’ work from military observers - who suspended most of their monitoring activities on June 16 because of increased risk amid rising violence - to the civilian staff focusing on a political solution and issues like human rights.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: Yahoo!

#Syria: chief UN observer receives ‘clear commitment’ from authorities on peace plan

Major-General Robert Mood, head of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré


4 July 2012 –

Addressing reporters in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the UN Chief Military Observer in the country, Major-General Robert Mood, today said the Government had indicated a clear commitment to a peace plan aimed at ending the violence there, and reiterated the commitment of the United Nations to helping the people of Syria.

“I received from the Government a very clear commitment to the six-point plan,” Major-General Mood, who also heads the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), said after an earlier meeting with a Syrian Government working group, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad, at which he briefed on issues discussed at a recent meeting of the Action Group on Syria.

“And let me convey to you and to the Syrian people that the commitment of the United Nations to the welfare of the Syrian people and to the future is strong, it remains strong and it will continue,” the UNSMIS head added.

Put forward earlier this year by the Joint Special Envoy for the UN and the League of Arab States on Syria, Kofi Annan, the six-point peace plan calls for an end to violence that has gripped the Middle Eastern country, access for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need, the release of detainees, the start of inclusive political dialogue, and unrestricted access to the country for the international media.

The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 16 months ago.

In his remarks to the journalists, Major-General Mood also spoke about the first meeting of the Action Group on Syria, this past weekend in Geneva, which he had attended. The UN-backed Action Group forged an agreement outlining the steps for a peaceful transition in Syria, while strongly condemning the continued and escalating violence that has taken place there.

“Let me also say that the urgency of stopping the violence is maybe the most important issue for everyone involved,” he said. “There is this feeling that it’s too much talk in nice hotels, in nice meetings, and too little action to move forward and stop the violence.”

The Security Council established UNSMIS – for three months and with up to 300 unarmed military observers – in April to monitor the cessation of violence in Syria, as well as monitor and support the full implementation of the six-point peace plan. Major-General Mood suspended the monitoring activities of the UN observers mid-June, following an escalation of violence.

“We are reviewing this on a daily basis and [when] the conditions on the ground allow the implementation of our mandated tasks, we will resume our mandated tasks,” the UNSMIS head said.

UNSMIS’s authorized three months ends on 20 July, with Council expected to meet before then to decide on its future.

“We are all in this mission to serve the welfare of the Syrian people with all our energies and all our efforts,” Major-General Mood said in response to a question. “What happens after 20th July, is for the Security Council to decide.”

“But I am still very much convinced that the commitment of the UN to the welfare of the Syrian people, to the future of the Syrian people will be strong also after the 20th of July, but exactly what will be the outcome of the Security Council’s deliberations and discussions remains to be seen in the coming days and the coming weeks,” the Chief Military Observer added.

Source: un.org

UN mission in #Syria to stay suspended

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations mission in Syria will remain suspended because the conflict between government and opposition forces is intensifying, a top UN official told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

And UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has still not secured agreement on a political transition plan that all the major powers can back so that an international meeting on the conflict can go ahead this week, diplomats said.

Herve Ladsous, UN peacekeeping chief, said civilians in Syria face “increasing danger” and “conditions are not conducive to resume operations,” diplomats at a closed Security Council meeting on the conflict said.

The almost 300 unarmed UN monitors halted operations on June 16 as President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown against opposition groups intensified.

Ladsous said the UN mission was still trying to help humanitarian workers. But he added that the Syrian government was throwing up obstacles such as refusing to allow satellite telephones, which the UN official said were “key tools.”

The UN is working on options for the mission when its mandate ends on July 20. Diplomats expect the mission to be cut back to a mainly civilian operation.

Annan’s deputy envoy, Nasser al-Qudwa, told the council there were “massive” rights violations in Syria with more civilians being killed each day and growing attacks on government forces by opposition fighters, the diplomats reported.

With Syrian activists now estimating more than 15,000 people have died in the 15-month old conflict, France demanded at the meeting that UN rights chief Navi Pillay brief the Security Council on Syria to keep up pressure on Assad.

Qudwa said foreign ministers from the major powers and other key countries around Syria could meet in Geneva on Saturday to discuss political efforts to implement Annan’s floundering six-point peace plan.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accepted an invitation to Saturday’s Geneva meeting, the country’s UN envoy said. But diplomats added there is not yet an accord on a political plan so that Annan can officially convene the meeting.

“We attach great importance to this meeting. As you know Russia proposed an international conference on Syria and this is very much in line with our thinking,” Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters.

Because of the “grim” situation in Syria “we need to work even harder,” he added. Russia wanted the Geneva meeting to “provide a powerful impetus for political efforts to put an end to the conflict in Syria.”

The United States, Britain, France and China — the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council — have not yet said whether they will attend the Geneva meeting.

The main powers have been in intensive consultations in recent days on a political plan for Syria that would tempt Assad into talks on his future.

Qudwa said the Geneva meeting should identify measures to secure implementation of Annan’s peace plan and agree on guidelines for a political transition.

Because of the growing death toll, the Geneva meeting must not be a “talking shop” which is why the key states must agree on the guidelines, Qudwa was quoted as saying.

He added that a decision on whether to hold the meeting depended on “agreement on the scope of participation and an intention to reach an outcome,” Council diplomats said.

Annan has said he wants key states that can influence Syria, as well as the main powers, at the Geneva meeting. Annan and UN leader Ban Ki-moon have both spoken in favor of Iran taking part. The United States opposes Iranian involvement.

Source: google.com

UN suspends #Syria mission as government resumes shelling in capital

By Matt Williams

UN observers in Syria
The UN said the uptick in violence was stopping personnel from carrying out their mandate to observe an April 12 ceasefire deal. Photograph: EPA

The United Nations has suspended its mission in Syria amid rising violence and renewed shelling in the strife-torn country.

In a statement Saturday, major general Robert Mood, head of the UN mission to Syria, halted operations “until further notice”.

It comes amid claim that Syrian government forces has recommenced shelling in the capital Damascus, killing 12 people, according to opposition figures.

The past two weeks have seen a worrying escalation in violence in the country. A massacre in the town of Houla on May 25 resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people, many of them women and children.

That attack resulted in a series of stern warnings against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and renewed calls for his removal from power.

But a refusal by Russia to back international pressure on Assad – amid allegations that Moscow continues to arm the strongman’s armies – has resulted in an impasse.

On Friday Mood warned that he may have to pull his 300 UN observers out of Syria unless the situation improved.

He accused both sides in the near-civil war of “willingly” intensifying the fighting, causing losses on both sides and putting unarmed UN monitors at “significant risks”.

Last week shots were fired at a car carrying international monitors after they were turned away from the town of Haffeh by angry Assad supporters who threw stones and metal rods at their convoy

On Saturday, Mood carried out his earlier threat and suspended the UN mission.

“The observers will not be conducting patrols and will stay in their locations until further notice,” he announced in a statement.

He said the uptick in violence was stopping UN personnel from carrying out their mandate to observe an April 12 ceasefire deal. That agreement has long since fallen redundant, given the continuation of killings.

“This suspension will be reviewed on a daily basis. Operations will resume when we see the situation fit for us to carry out our mandated activities,” Mood said.

The move marks yet another sign that the peace plan brokered by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan is nearing irrelevance. The fear is now that without international monitors, conditions could worsen still as Syria disintegrates into civil war.

Source: Guardian

World powers mull #Syria crisis forum

Middle East Online

DAMASCUS - France said on Friday that world powers could hold a summit on the Syrian crisis at the end of June as the deadly revolt against President Bashar al-Assad entered its 16th month.

Activists on the ground called for another day of anti-regime protests after at least another 84 people were killed in clashes and bombings across the country on Thursday, a human rights watchdog said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said major world powers could hold a conference on the crisis which has cost thousands of lives on June 30 in the Swiss city of Geneva.

“There is a possibility, I don’t know if we’ll get there, but there is a possibility of holding a conference in Geneva on June 30,” Fabius told France Inter radio.

Participants would include countries on the UN Security Council but the meeting would be held “without the constraints of the Security Council,” the foreign minister added.

He also said that talks were under way with Russia on Syria’s future if Assad is ousted.

“The Russians are not today attached to the person of Bashar al-Assad. They clearly see he is a tyrant and a murderer. But they are sensitive about who might take his place, if Assad is ousted. The discussion is about that,” he said.

Russia, along with China, has vetoed two Security Council resolutions against Assad and has vowed to oppose any military intervention.

In reaction to US charges, Russia said on Friday that it was not making any new deliveries of attack helicopters to Syria and had only carried out repairs of helicopters sent there many years ago.

“There are no new supplies of Russian-made attack helicopters to Syria,” the foreign ministry said, adding that “planned repairs were carried out earlier on helicopters supplied to Syria many years ago.”

The ministry reasserted Russia’s position that “all our military and technical cooperation with Syria is limited to the supply of defensive weapons.”

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday accused Russia of fuelling the violence by sending attack helicopters to Syria, which she said were “on the way” and would “escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”

Her spokeswoman Victoria Nuland later said that Russia was sending back “freshly refurbished” helicopters to the regime in Damascus that had been under repairs for six months or more.

On a conciliatory note, Clinton said Thursday that the United States had held “constructive” talks with Russia but urged more action after days of feuding over the bloodshed in Syria.

Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a conference in Afghanistan, she said.

“My deputy Bill Burns had a constructive meeting in Kabul with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. We don’t see eye to eye on all of the issues, but our discussions continue,” Clinton told a news conference.

She said that US President Barack Obama would meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at next week’s Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico.

Monitors say more than 14,400 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since a peaceful uprising erupted on March 15, 2011, prompting a bloody crackdown by Assad’s forces that eventually prompted an armed reaction.

In other violence on Thursday, 14 people were also wounded when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle near an important Shiite Muslim shrine in the capital, the state news agency SANA said.

And a car bomb in the northwestern city of Idlib killed and wounded a number of soldiers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

As on nearly every Friday since the uprising began, activists have called for nationwide demonstrations after weekly prayers, with this week’s slogan being “Always prepared for a strong mobilisation.”

Around the country, the Observatory said 48 civilians were among at least 84 killed in clashes and bombings on Thursday.

Areas in the provinces of Homs, Daraa, Damascus, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Idlib were all targeted, the London-based watchdog said.

UN observers on Thursday visited Al-Haffe town in the Mediterranean province of Latakia, a day after Syrian authorities said the area had been “cleansed” of rebel fighters, a UN spokeswoman in Damascus said.

On Wednesday, rebels withdrew from the besieged town and nearby villages that had been under intense regime shelling for eight days, the Observatory said.

The UN Supervisory Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) said the observers reported finding it all but deserted with a strong stench of dead bodies and most state buildings gutted.

State television said the observers had “inspected the vandalism and destruction wrought by the terrorists.”

The United Nations and opposition activists had expressed fears of a massacre if pro-government forces entered the town, just 16 kilometres (10 miles) from Assad’s mainly Alawite hometown of Qardaha.

Opposition sources said anti-Assad groups are to meet in Istanbul on Friday and Saturday in a bid to settle their differences and close ranks.

Source: middle-east-online.com

#Syria shells rebel bastion

(AFP) / 17 May 2012

Syrian forces sent shells crashing into rebel stronghold Rastan on Thursday, a watchdog said, hours after President Bashar al-Assad branded the armed opposition as “criminals” infiltrated by Al-Qaeda.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 30 shells smashed into Rastan in a 10-minute period after midnight, and urged UN observers monitoring a shaky truce to immediately rush to the town in central Homs province.

“The army is trying to gradually destroy Rastan,” Abdel Rahman told AFP.

There were no immediate reports on casualties.

Rastan has for months been the focus of an offensive by the regime as it attempts to regain control of the town, defended by the largest concentration of rebel soldiers in the country and encircled by the army.

On Monday, the UN Supervisory Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) reported heavy fighting near Rastan, where activists said at least 23 soldiers and seven civilians died in fierce clashes between government forces and rebels.

The Britain-based Observatory alleged regime troops had this week carried out two “massacres” of civilians — one in Homs city in which 15 civilians were “summarily executed” and another in the town of Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib province, when they gunned down 20 people at a funeral procession.

Clashes across Syria continue despite an April 12 truce brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan as part of a six-point plan aimed at ending violence that has swept Syria since March 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted.

Assad, in an interview with Russian state news channel Rossia-24, on Wednesday accused the West of ignoring violence by “terrorists” and said he would demand an explanation from Annan when he visits Damascus later this month.

He complained that, since the arrival of the UN observers there had been an increase in “terrorist attacks” despite a reduction in “direct confrontation” between government forces and their foes.

“The West only talks about violence, violence on the government side. There is not a word about the terrorists. We are still waiting,” he said. “I will ask him (Annan) what this is about” when he next visits Syria.

Assad denounced the armed opposition as a gang of “criminals” who he said contained religious extremists, including members of Al-Qaeda. He also said many “foreign mercenaries” from Arab states fighting for the rebels had been killed.

Russia, a key ally of Assad’s regime, cautioned Western powers on Thursday against launching “hasty” wars that could lead to the rise of radical Islamist factions and all-out regional war.

“The consequence of hasty military operations in foreign states usually means that radicals come to power,” Russia’s premier and former president Dmitry Medvedev told a televised forum in Saint Petersburg.

“And sometimes these actions — which undermine state sovereignty — could result in a fully-fledged regional war,” he said, in clear reference to Moscow’s current standoff with the West over Syria.

Syria-linked violence flared again on Thursday in the north Lebanon port city of Tripoli, where one person was killed and seven wounded, a security official said.

The sectarian clashes erupted in the neighbourhoods of Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen and saw both sides using rockets and machineguns, the official said.

Jabal Mohsen is populated mainly by Alawites loyal to the regime of Assad, who belongs to the same Shiite Muslim sect, while Bab al-Tebbaneh residents support the opposition seeking to oust the president.

Clashes between residents of the two districts earlier this week left nine people dead and sparked fears the revolt in Syria could engulf its tiny neighbour.

Highlighting divisions within the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists on the ground in Syria, threatened Thursday to pull out of the main opposition bloc over its “monopolisation” of power.

The threat came after Paris-based academic Burhan Ghalioun was re-elected head of the Syrian National Coalition in the face of some opposition within the group and rules that require the president’s rotation every three months.

The LCC, which said it might freeze its SNC membership, was particularly critical of the exiled coalition for failing to coordinate with the activists on the ground, and for the strong influence wielded by Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood.

More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have died since the Syrian uprising began, according to the Observatory, including more than 900 killed since the truce came into effect.

The UN mission in Syria says it now has 236 military observers in the country.

Source: khaleejtimes.com

#Syria violence ‘leaves 30 dead’ despite UN monitors

At least 30 people have been killed in renewed violence in Syria on Tuesday despite a ceasefire, activists say.

Nine members of one family, including four women and two children, were among 11 people killed in a mortar attack by troops on a village in Idlib province.

Twelve soldiers were also reportedly killed in the province of Deir al-Zour.

Meanwhile, the UN’s peacekeeping chief said its observers in Syria had noted violations of the 20-day-old ceasefire by both the government and opposition.

“The violations that are observed come from both sides. I would not establish the ratio,” Herve Ladsous told reporters in New York, adding that heavy weapons were still being deployed.

“Our observers have seen a number of APCs [armoured personnel carriers], for instance. They see a number of Howitzers and military equipment in most places where they are,” he added. “It is being claimed that the APCs have been disarmed, but that is not verified in all places.”

Mr Ladsous said the observers had confirmed there had been a bombing in Hama on Thursday, but that they did not know more. Both sides have blamed each other for the blast, which activists say killed up to 70 people.

An advance party of 24 unarmed military observers began work two weeks ago, with a number being sent to cities such as Hama.

Mr Ladsous said the deployment of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) was being “accelerated”, and that he hoped its full complement of 300 observers would be on the ground by the end of May.

However, he revealed that UN member states had so far only offered 150 monitors, and that Syria had refused visas for three of them.

‘Outside forces’

Mr Ladsous spoke after activists said at least nine members of a single family, including four women and two children, had been killed during the bombardment of a village in the north-eastern province of Idlib.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a mortar round had hit the family’s home in Mashmashan, near the town of Jisr al-Shughour.

Elsewhere in the province, a 13-year-old boy was killed by random gunfire in the town of Maarat al-Numan, it added.

In Deir al-Zour province, in the east, troops reportedly retaliated with mortar and machine-gun fire at a village, killing at least one person, after 12 soldiers were killed by rebels.

The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an activist network, said 35 people had been killed by security forces across the country on Tuesday, including 18 in Idlib province, five in Hama and four in Homs.

The speaker of the Syrian parliament, Mahmoud al-Abrash, blamed the violence on other countries, which he said had been supporting the rebel Free Syrian Army.

“The escalation is continuing and it must be stopped from the outside - I mean those who are providing those groups with weapons and money,” he told the Reuters news agency. “They need to stop this.”

‘No other options’

Earlier the head of UNSMIS, Maj Gen Robert Mood of Norway, told the BBC World Service that his team were already having “a calming effect”.

He rejected criticism of the mission, particularly the small size of the team, and the fact that the observers are unarmed.

“There are not any other options on the table at the moment,” he said.

“We have seen this in many crises before that if you simply keep adding to the violence with more bombs and weapons and more violence, it becomes a circle that is almost impossible to break,” he added. “We are not in that situation.”

But Gen Mood acknowledged that the monitors would not be able to solve Syria’s problems on their own.

The observer mission is part of a six-point peace plan negotiated by the UN and Arab League’s special envoy, Kofi Annan.

The UN meanwhile said it had received reports that 34 children had been killed in Syria since the ceasefire came into effect in 12 April.

Definitive figures are hard to verify because until now the UN, and independent journalists, have not had free access to the country.

But Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN’s special representative for children and armed conflict, said she could confirm that in recent days at least one child had been killed at an anti-government demonstration, and that the body of a girl had been retrieved from a destroyed house in Hama.

She urged both sides to “refrain from indiscriminate tactics resulting in the killing and wounding of children”.

In a separate development, President Barack Obama moved to increase the pressure of sanctions against Syria and Iran by granting the US treasury department new powers to publicly identify foreign companies, banks and individuals who try to evade US sanctions.

The treasury said it would also be able to bar those who seek to bypass the sanctions from access to the US financial and economic sectors.

Source: BBC