Syrian army systematically killing civilians: Amnesty
(Reuters) - Syrian government forces are killing civilians in organized attacks on towns and villages that amount to crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said on Thursday, citing evidence from over 20 locations in the country's northwest. The rights group repeated its call for the United Nations Security Council to refer Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and to impose an arms embargo.
Amnesty's findings, detailed in a 70-page report, add to reports of massacres elsewhere in Syria as a 15-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad moves closer to a civil war. Its researchers visited 23 towns and villages in the Aleppo and Idlib provinces between April and May, conducting interviews with more than 200 people, including many whose relatives had been killed or whose homes had been destroyed.
Amnesty adviser Donatella Rovera told Reuters TV she had found repeated examples of brutality against civilians during two months of unauthorized visits to northwest Syria.
"Wherever I went, in every town, in every village, there was a very similar pattern - soldiers who went in, in very large numbers, for very short but very brutal incursions where they extra-judicially executed young men, burned down their homes. Those who they arrested were then tortured in detention," she said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/14/us-syria-amnesty-idUSBRE85D08520120614
You would think that if the opposition were being armed by Western or Gulf nations, they would have better protection. The recent withdrawal by the opposition was because they ran out of ammunition.
"On Tuesday, most local resistance fighters withdrew from the besieged town of Haffeh, Lattakia Province, having run out of ammunition. But the situation was still tense on Wednesday despite reports that loyalist troops and militias have retaken villages surrounding the town."
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