The Hula Massacre is a turning point in the Syrian conflict
Sunni Rebels pursue the “liquidation” of all minorities: ... This progression of events can be reconstructed: After the Friday prayer on May 25, more than 700 armed men under the leadership of Abdurrazzaq Tlass and Yahya Yusuf attacked – coming in three groups from Rastan, Kafr Laha and Akraba – three army roadblocks around Taldou. The rebels outnumbering the soldiers (most of them also Sunni) engaged them in a bloody battle, killing two dozen soldiers, most of them conscripts. During and after the fighting the rebels executed the families al Sajjid and Abdarrazzaq. They had refused to join the opposition.
Rainer Hermann | Current Concerns | No 26, 25 June 2012
As early as 1 April the nun Agnés-Maryam of the Jacob monastery (“Deir Mar Yakub”) south of Homs in the town Qara described the climate of violence and fear in the region in a long letter. She concluded that the Sunni rebels were pursuing a stepwise liquidation of all minorities; In her letter she describes the expulsion of Christians and Alawis from their homes as they were occupied by the rebels and the raping of girls who were handed over to the rebels as “war booty”; she was an eye witness when in the Wadi Sajjeh road rebels killed a merchant refusing to close his shop with a car bomb and then, in front of an Al-Jazeera camera, the same rebels claimed that this deed had been committed by the regime. And finally she described how, in the Khalidijah quarter of Homs, Sunni rebels had locked Alawi and Christian hostages into a house, blew it up only to declare later that this had been another atrocity committed by the regime.
Why should the Syrian eyewitnesses be considered credible? Because they belong to none of the parties in the conflict but stand in between the battle lines and have no interest other than trying to prevent a further escalation of violence. Several of these persons have already been killed by now. Hence nobody wants to reveal his or her identity. But there can be no certainty about all details at a time when there is no chance to double-check all facts on site. Even if the Hula massacre did happen as described above, we cannot draw any conclusions for other massacres. As was the case in the Kosovo war, each massacre has to be investigated independently.
The Hula Massacre is a turning point in the Syrian conflict
Rainer Hermann | Current Concerns | No 26, 25 June 2012
The Hula massacre is a turning point in the Syrian conflict. Based on UN observers, the Western public blames the Syrian army. There are reports from eye witnesses that doubt this version. According to them, the civilians were killed by Sunni rebels.
The Hula massacre was a turning point in the Syrian drama. There was a huge global outcry when on 25 May 108 people were killed, among them 45 children.
Requests for a military intervention to stop the bloodshed were heard and violence has been escalating in Syria ever since. Based on Arabic news stations and the visit of UN monitors on the following day, the world public opinion almost unanimously blamed the massacre on the regular Syrian army and their close allies, the Shabiha militia.
Last week [7 June], the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ) challenged that version on the basis of eyewitness reports. It reported that the killed civilians had been Alawis and Shias. They were killed purposefully by armed Sunnis in Taldou, a city in the Hula plane, while there was heavy fighting around the town and roadblocks between the regular army and units of the Free Syrian Army. Many media worldwide have since then commented on this report, most of them discarding it as not trustworthy. Hence there are four questions: Why has the world public opinion followed a different version up to now? Why does the context of the civil war make the FAZ version plausible? Why are the witnesses trustworthy? Which further facts support their version?
Firstly, why has the world public opinion followed a different version? Undoubtedly, all atrocities committed in the first months of the conflict, while the opposition did not have any weapons and was defenseless, have to be blamed on the regime. Hence it was a plausible assumption that this would continue. Additionally, the Syrian state media have no credibility. Since the beginning of the conflict, they have repetitively been using formulas like “armed terror groups”. That is why nobody believes them when this is really the case. The news stations Al-Jazeera and al-Arabia have become the leading media, however. They belong to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two states actively involved in the conflict. For good reasons, we know the saying: “In war, truth is the first casualty”.
Secondly, why does the context of the civil war make the FAZ version plausible? In the past months, many weapons were smuggled into Syria; for a long time, the rebels make use of moderately heavy weapons. In Syria, more than 100 people have been killed every week; the deaths of both sides are balanced. The militia fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army controls a large part of the provinces of Homs and Idlib and is expanding their rule over large parts of the country. The increasing lawlessness has led to a wave of criminal abductions; it has also allowed to settle old scores. Whoever looks around in Facebook or talks to Syrians: Everybody knows stories of “confessional cleansings” – of people having been killed just because they were Alawis or Sunnis.
The plane of Hula, mostly inhabited by Sunni, situated between the Sunni Homs and the mountains of the Alawis has seen a long history of confessional tensions. The massacre has occurred in Taldou, one of the largest towns in Hula. The names of the 84 civilians are known. They are the fathers, mothers and 49 children of the al Sajjid family and two branches of the Abdarrazzaq family. Locals said that the killed were Alawis and Muslims who had converted from Sunni to Shia Islam. Only a few kilometers from the Lebanon border, this makes them suspicious to be sympathizers of the Hezbollah which is hated among the Sunnis. In addition, relatives of the member of parliament Abdalmuti Mashlab, who has been faithful to the regime, were among the murdered.
The apartments of the three families are in different parts of Taldou. The members of the families were killed in a targeted manner with only one exception. No neighbor was even hurt. Knowledge of the place was indispensable for these well-planned “executions”. The news agency AP cited the only survivor of the al Sajjid family, eleven-year-old Ali: “the killers had shaved their heads and wore long beards”. This is what fanatic Jihadists look like, not the Shabiha militia. The boy had survived because he had feigned death and smeared himself with his mother’s blood, he said.
Sunni Rebels pursue the “liquidation” of all minorities
As early as 1 April the nun Agnés-Maryam of the Jacob monastery (“Deir Mar Yakub”) south of Homs in the town Qara described the climate of violence and fear in the region in a long letter. She concluded that the Sunni rebels were pursuing a stepwise liquidation of all minorities; In her letter she describes the expulsion of Christians and Alawis from their homes as they were occupied by the rebels and the raping of girls who were handed over to the rebels as “war booty”; she was an eye witness when in the Wadi Sajjeh road rebels killed a merchant refusing to close his shop with a car bomb and then, in front of an Al-Jazeera camera, the same rebels claimed that this deed had been committed by the regime. And finally she described how, in the Khalidijah quarter of Homs, Sunni rebels had locked Alawi and Christian hostages into a house, blew it up only to declare later that this had been another atrocity committed by the regime.
Why should the Syrian eyewitnesses be considered credible? Because they belong to none of the parties in the conflict but stand in between the battle lines and have no interest other than trying to prevent a further escalation of violence. Several of these persons have already been killed by now. Hence nobody wants to reveal his or her identity. But there can be no certainty about all details at a time when there is no chance to double-check all facts on site. Even if the Hula massacre did happen as described above, we cannot draw any conclusions for other massacres. As was the case in the Kosovo war, each massacre has to be investigated independently.
What are further facts supporting the above reported version? The FAZ was not the first to report a new version of the Hula massacre. The other reports could simply not stand their ground against the big media. The Russian journalist Marat Musin who works for the small news agency Anna had been in Hula on the 25 and 26 May, had been partially an eyewitness and had published the testimonies of other eyewitnesses. In addition, the Dutch Arabist and free journalist Martin Janssen had contacted the Jacobs monastery in Qara where many victims had been accommodated and where the nuns do humanitarian work in a selfless manner.
Rebels present their version of the massacre to UN observers
To him the nuns described how more than 700 armed rebels, coming from Rastan, had overrun an army roadblock before Taldou, how they had piled up the bodies of the dead soldiers and civilians in front of the mosque and how, posing in front of a media station’s cameras sympathizing with the rebels, they had presented to the UN observers their version of the alleged massacre committed by the Syrian army. The very next day, UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon reported to the UN Security Council that the detailed circumstances remained unclear. But the UN could confirm that “there had been fire from artillery and grenades. There had also been other forms of violence including shots from closest distance and serious abuses.”
This progression of events can be reconstructed: After the Friday prayer on May 25, more than 700 armed men under the leadership of Abdurrazzaq Tlass and Yahya Yusuf attacked – coming in three groups from Rastan, Kafr Laha and Akraba – three army roadblocks around Taldou. The rebels outnumbering the soldiers (most of them also Sunni) engaged them in a bloody battle, killing two dozen soldiers, most of them conscripts. During and after the fighting the rebels executed the families al Sajjid and Abdarrazzaq. They had refused to join the opposition. •
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 June 2012, © all rights reserved by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, Frankfurt. Provided by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Archive. (Translation Current Concerns)
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THE HOULA MASSACRE: Opposition Terrorists "Killed Families Loyal to the Government"
Detailed Investigation
Marat Musin | Global Research | June 1, 2012 | ANNA NEWS (Original Russian) and syrianews.cc
Slaughter Slant: Houla massacre sparks media blame-game (05:06) |
Global Research Editor's Note
This incisive report by independent Russian journalist Marat Musin dispels the lies and fabrications of the Western media.
The report is based on a chronology of events as well as eyewitness accounts. Entire pro-government families in Houla were massacred. The terrorists were not pro-government shabbiha militia as conveyed, in chorus, by the mainstream media, they were in large part mercenaries and professional killers operating under the auspices of the self-proclaimed Free Syrian Army (FSA):
"When the rebels seized the lower checkpoint in the center of town and located next to the local police department, they began to sweep all the families loyal to the authorities in neighboring houses, including the elderly, women and children.
Several families of the Al-Sayed were killed, including 20 young children and the family of Abdul Razak. The people were killed with knives and shot at point blank range.
Then they presented the murdered [corpses] to the UN and the international community as victims of bombings by the Syrian army, something that was not verified by any marks on their bodies."
We call on our readers to forward this report far and wide, post it on facebook. .
The massacre in Houla is being blamed on the Syrian government without a shred of evidence. The objective is not only to isolate Syria politically and economically, but to develop a pretext and a justification for waging an R2P humanitarian war on Syria.
The US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has hinted that if the Security Council does not act, the US and its allies may consider "taking actions outside of the Annan plan and the authority of the [UN Security] Council.”
This report by Marat Musin confirms that crimes against humanity are being committed by terrorist militia.
It is essential to reverse the tide of war propaganda which uses civilian deaths as a pretext to wage war, when those killings of civilians were carried out not by government forces but by professional terrorists operating under the helm of the US-NATO sponsored Free Syrian Army.
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, Montreal, June 1, 2012
********************************
In the weekend of May 25, 2012, at about 2 PM, big groups of fighters attacked and captured the town of Al – Hula of the Homs province. Al-Houla is made up of three regions: the village of Taldou, Kafr Laha and Taldahab, each of which had previously been home for 25-30 thousand people.
The town was attacked from the north-east by groups of bandits and mercenaries, numbering up to 700 people. The militants came from Ar-Rastan (the Brigade of al-Farouk from the Free Syrian Army led by the terrorist Abdul Razak Tlass and numbering 250), from the village of Akraba (led by the terrorist Yahya Al-Yousef), from the village Farlaha, joined by local gangsters, and from Al Houla.
The city of Ar-Rastan has long been abandoned by most civilians. Now Wahhabis from Lebanon dominate the scene, fueled with money and weapons by one of the main orchestrators of international terrorism, Saad Hariri, who heads the anti-Syrian political movement “Tayyar Al-Mustaqbal” (“Future Movement”). The road from Ar-Rastan to Al-Houla runs through Bedouin areas that remain mostly out of control of government troops, which made the militant attacks on Al Hula a complete surprise for the Syrian authorities.
When the rebels seized the lower checkpoint in the center of town and located next to the local police department, they began to sweep all the families loyal to the authorities in neighboring houses, including the elderly, women and children. Several families of the Al-Sayed were killed, including 20 young children and the family of the Abdul Razak. Many of those killed were “guilty” of the fact that they dared to change from Sunnis to Shiites. The people were killed with knives and shot at point blank range. Then they presented the murdered to the UN and the international community as victims of bombings by the Syrian army, something that was not verified by any marks on their bodies.
The idea that the UN observers had heard artillery fire against Al-Houla in the Safir Hotel in Homs at night… I consider nothing short of a bad joke. 50 kilometers lie between Homs and Al-Houla. What kind of tanks or guns has this range? Yes, there was intensive gunfire in Homs until 3 am, including heavy weapons. But, to give an example, on the night of Monday to Tuesday shooting was due to an attempt by law enforcement to regain control for a security corridor along the road to Damascus, Tarik Al-Sham.
After a visual inspection of Al Hula it is impossible to find traces of any of fresh destruction, bombing and shelling. During the day, several attacks by gunmen are made on the last remaining soldiers at the Taldou checkpoint. Militants used heavy weapons and snipers made up of professional mercenaries were active.
Note that once, the exactly same provocation failed at Shumar (Homs) and 49 militants and women and children were killed, when it was organized just before a visit of Kofi Annan. The last provocation was immediately exposed as soon as it became known that the bodies of the previously kidnapped belonged to Alawites. This provocation also contained serious inconsistencies – the names of those killed were from people loyal to the authorities, there were no traces of bombings, etc.
However, the provocation machine is running all the same. Today, the NATO countries directly threat to bomb Syria, and a simultaneous expulsion of Syrian diplomats has begun … As of today, there are no troops within the city of Al Hula, but there are regularly heard bursts of automatic fire, nonetheless. Moreover, it is unclear whether the militants are fighting with each other, or whether supporters of Bashar al-Assad are being cleaned out.
Militants opened fire on virtually everyone who tries to get closer to the border town. Before us a UN convoy was fired upon and two armored jeeps of the UN observers were damaged, when they tried to drive up to an army checkpoint in Tal Dow.
In the attack on the convoy a twenty-year-old terrorist was spotted. The fire was directed on the unprotected slopes of the first jeep, the back door of the second armored car was hooked by a fragment. There are wounded among those accompanying.
According to a wounded soldier:
“The next day, UN observers came to us at the checkpoint and as soon as they arrived, gunmen opened fire on them. And three of us were injured. One was wounded in the leg, the second – in the back, and I was hit in the hip.
When the observers came, they could hear a woman who was standing next to them and cried, the woman stood and pleaded the observers’ help – to protect her from the bandits. When I was wounded, the observers watched as I fell, but none of them tried to help. Our checkpoint no longer exists. There are no civilians any longer in Taldou, only militants remain. Our relationship to the locals was excellent. They are very good to us; they called on the army to enter Taldou. We were attacked by snipers.”
Unfortunately, many of the militants are professional snipers. 100-200 meters from our group TV-crew, militants attacked a BMP that went to replace soldiers at the checkpoint. During this a soldier – draftee got a concussion and slight tangential wound in the head by a sniper bullet. Looking at the pierced Kevlar helmet, it seems he did not even realize that he survived by a miracle.
Snipers kill up to 10 soldiers and policemen at checkpoints each day. It is true, that the daily casualties of law enforcement agencies in Homs were dozens of victims daily. But, unfortunately, at 10 am, six dead soldiers were taken to the morgue. Most were killed by a shot in the head. And the day had just begun…
So, these are the names of those were killed by snipers in the early morning hours of May 29:
1. Sergeant Ibrahim Halyuf
2. Sergeant Salman Ibrahim
3. Policeman Mahmoud Danaver
4. Conscript Ali Daher
5. Sergeant Wisam Haidar
6. the dead soldier’s family name could not be clarified
The bandits even fired an automatic burst on our group of journalists, although it was clear that this is a normal filming crew, consisting of unarmed civilians.
HOW THE ATTACK BEGAN
After Friday prayers at about 2 PM on May, 25th a group from the Al Aksh clan started firing on a checkpoint of law enforcement officers from mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Returning fire from a BRDM hit the mosque, and this was the very aim to lead to a bigger provocation.
Then, two groups of militants led by the terrorist Nidal Bakkour and Al-Hassan from the Al Hallak clan, supported by a unit of mercenaries, attacked the upper checkpoint on the eastern outskirts of the city. At 15.30 the upper checkpoint was taken, and all the prisoners executed: a Sunni conscript had his throat cut, while Abdullah Shaui (Bedouin) of Deir-Zor was burned alive.
During the attack on the upper checkpoint in the east, the armed men lost 25 people, which were then submitted to the UN observers, together with the 108 dead civilians – “victims of the regime”, allegedly killed by bombing and shelling of the Syrian army. As for the remaining 83 bodies, including 38 young children, they were from the families that were executed by militants. These families were all loyal to the government of Syria.
Interviews:
with a law enforcement officer:
“My name is Al Khosam, I am a law enforcement officer. I served in the village of Taldou, the district of Al-Houla, a province of Homs. On Friday, our checkpoint was attacked by a large group of militants. There were thousands.
Q: How do you protect yourself?
Answer: A simple weapon. We had 20 people, we called support, and when they were coming for us, I was wounded, and regained consciousness in the hospital. The attackers were from Ar-Rastan and Al-Hula. Insurgents control Taldou. They burned houses and killed people by the families, because they were loyal to the government. Raped the women and killed the children.”
Interview with a wounded soldier:
“I am Ahmed Mahmoud al Khali. I’m from the city Manbej. Was wounded in Taldou. I come from a support group that came to the aid of our comrades, who were stationed at the checkpoint.
Militants destroyed two infantry fighting vehicles and one BRDM standing at our checkpoint. We moved out to Taldou in a BMP, to pick up our wounded comrades from the checkpoint within the city. We drove them back in the BMP, and I filled in their place.
And after a while the UN observers came. They came to us, we led them to the homes of families who were cut by thugs.
I saw a family of three brothers and their father in the same room. In another room we found dead young children and their mother. And another one- an old man killed in this house. Only five men, women and children. The woman raped and shot in the head, I covered her with a blanket. And the commission had seen them all. They put them in the car and drove away. I do not know where they took them, probably for burial.”
A resident of Taldou on the roof of the police department:
“On Friday afternoon I was home. Hearing the shots, I came out to watch what was happening and saw that the fire came from the north side, towards the location of army checkpoint. As the army did not respond, they started to approach the homes, were subsequently the family was killed. When the army started to return fire, they used the women and children as human shields and continued firing at the checkpoint. When the army began answered, they fled. After that, the army took the surviving women and children and brought them into safety. At this time, Al Jazeera aired pictures and said that the Army committed the massacre at Al Hula.
In fact, they killed the civilians and children in Al-Hula. The bandits did not allow anyone to carry out their work. They steal everything that they can get their hands on: wheat, flour, oil and gas. Most of the fighters are from the city of Ar Rastan.”
After they captured the city, they carried the bodies of their dead comrades, as well as the bodies of people and the children they killed to the mosque. They carried the bodies in KIA pickups. On May, 25th, at around 8 PM, the corpses were already in the mosque. The next day at 11 o’clock in the morning the UN observers arrived at the mosque.
Media Disinformation
To exert pressure on public opinion and change the positions of Russia and China, texts and subtitles in Russian and Chinese languages were prepared in advance, reading: “Syria – Homs – the city of Hula. A terrible massacre perpetrated by the armed forces of the Syrian regime against civilians in the town of Houla. Dozens of victims and their number is growing, mainly women and children, brutally killed by indiscriminate bombing of the CITY.”
Two days later, on May 27, after the residents’ stories and video recordings made showed that the facts do not support the allegation of shelling and bombing, the bandits’ videos had undergone significant changes. At the end of the text appeared this postscript: “And some were killed with knives.”
Marat Musin, Olga Kulygina, Al-Houla, Syria
Original text / source: http://maramus.livejournal.com/86539.html
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