Syria and Afghanistan

Attack on Syrian village targeted rebels: UN

Press TV,

14 July, 2012

The United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) says the attack in the village of al-Treimseh in the east of the country targeted rebels.

UNSMIS spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh said in a statement that a team of observers had visited the village in central Syria on Saturday, AFP reported.

A variety of weapons were used in the attack on al-Treimseh, on the outskirts of the city of Hama, where more than 150 people were killed on Thursday, July 12, with the homes of rebels bearing the brunt, she stated.

“A wide range of weapons were used, including artillery, mortars and small arms," she added.

40 Taliban militants killed in Afghanistan in 24 hours

Afghan security forces have killed 40 Taliban militants during cleanup operations across the country over the course of the past 24 hours.

Press TV,

14 July, 2012

“Afghan forces launched the operations in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Logar, Ghazni, Paktia, Herat, Bamyan, and Baghlan provinces, killing 40 Taliban militants over the past 24 hours,” the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement issued on Saturday.

The Afghan government forces recovered ten machine guns along with a number of box magazines, three rocket launchers, 14 mines and hand grenades, 40 kilograms of explosives, and three motorcycles, which had been in the possession of the slain militants.

The statement did not mention whether there were any Afghan National Army casualties.

Insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan despite the presence of some 130,000 US-led forces in the war-torn country.

The United Nations announced on February 4 that 2011 was the deadliest on record for Afghan civilians. The death toll rose eight percent compared to the year before and was roughly double the figure for 2007.

Overall, 3,021 civilians died in violence related to the war and 4,507 were injured in 2011. 

UN monitors visit Syria 'massacre site'

Observers reach Tremseh in Hama province, where scores were killed after government launched air attack

al Jazeera,

14 July, 2012

UN observers in Syria have visited the village of Tremseh in central Hama province, where scores were killed earlier this week.

Sausan Ghosheh, UN spokeswoman, confirmed on Saturday that a group of observers had entered Tremseh with a convoy of around 11 vehicles.

"We were informed yesterday that there was a ceasefire. So we sent a patrol to Tremseh on a reconnaissance mission. The patrol assessed the situation, ie if there was in fact a ceasefire and our access to the town," she said, adding that the patrol would seek "verification of the facts".

A local activist in Hama province, going under the name Abu Ghazi, said the observers had met residents of the village and "inspected places that were bombed and where there were traces of blood".

Meanwhile, Arab nations on Saturday have decided to hold an emergency meeting of the Arab Committee on Syria on July 22 in Doha, in a bid to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria and the mass violence being committed in Syrian towns and villages.

Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League, Ambassador Ahmad ben Huli said that Arab nations have decided to hold an emergency meeting of the Arab Committee after intensive talks between Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jaber, and the Foreign Ministers of Kuwait, Iraq and Egypt, as well as Arab League Secretary General Nabil El Araby.

Earlier on Saturday, observers from the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) were seen checking and loading their vehicles before setting off in the direction of Hama.

Major General Robert Mood, the head of the UN monitoring mission, told reporters in Damascus that a group of observers, deployed few kilometres from Tremseh, confirmed the use of heavy weaponry and attack helicopters, implicating the government.

Different opposition sources said between 74 and 200 rebels and civilians have been killed when the village was attacked by helicopter gunships and tanks, then stormed by militiamen who killed entire families on Thursday.

'Decisive action'

The Syrian government said more than 50 people were killed when government forces clashed with "armed gangs" that were terrorising village residents.

The killings could not independently be verified since access to international media is severely restricted by authorities.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, on Friday called on the UN Security Council to take "decisive action" on the conflict in Syria following the attack.

Ban warned that any failure to act would be giving "a license for further massacres" as he and Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, called for more pressure on President Bashar al-Assad.

"I call upon all member states to take collective and decisive action to immediately and fully stop the tragedy unfolding in Syria," Ban said in a statement aimed at the council.

Meanwhile, Annan said he was "shocked and appalled" by the reports of the attack and condemned the government for using heavy weaponry in populated areas, the kind of aggression it was supposed to have stopped three months ago under a peace plan Annan drafted.

According to a report by UNSMIS, a patrol of unarmed UN military observers could get within only about 6km of Tremseh on Thursday before being stopped by air force commanders because of "military operations".

The patrol observed the situation from a few different locations around Tremseh for about eight hours during which time it heard more than 100 explosions, sporadic small arms and heavy machinegun fire and saw white and black smoke plumes.

Air force operation

The mission said Tremseh had been attacked as part of a continuing Syrian air force operation.

"The situation in Hama province continues to be highly volatile and unpredictable," said a "flash report" from the monitors obtained by Reuters news agency.

"[The Syrian air force] continues to target populated urban areas north of Hama City in a large scale," the report said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed outrage over the killings and demanded that the Security Council take action to stop the violence.

"History will judge this council," she said. "Its members must ask themselves whether continuing to allow the Assad regime to commit unspeakable violence against its own people is the legacy they want to leave."

Russia, for its part, condemned the Tremseh killings, but echoed the Syrian government in blaming them on "terrorists" opposed to Assad.

Western nations have proposed a Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions on Assad for not ending the use of heavy weapons in the conflict, which the opposition say has left more than 17,000 people dead.

But Russia has rejected any use of sanctions, and proposed its own resolution that the West said fell short of expectations.