Syria blames Houla deaths on ‘terrorists’

THE Syrian government has denied responsibility for an attack that killed at least 85 people, including 34 children, saying that it was carried out by “terrorists”.Jihad Makdissi, the spokesman for the Syrian foreign ministry, also lashed out at foreign leaders for accusing the government of having committed atrocities “without any evidence”.He told a press conference that “hundreds of armed men” had attacked Houla, a cluster of villages in Homs province, on Friday and clashed with government forces.“They used heavy weapons and anti-tank rockets,” he said on Sunday. “That’s why we lost some of our men from the security forces.”Makdissi said Syrian forces were trying to defend themselves but insisted that “no Syrian artillery or heavy weaponry” had been used in Houla. “Syria will continue defending its citizens,” he said.Activists in the region said Houla was hit by artillery barrage and that pro-government thugs, known as shabiha, stabbed women and children in their houses.Syrian forces shot and killed at least two men on Sunday as protests broke out to condemn the Houla massacre, opposition activists said.The two were killed in the Damascus suburbs of Yalda and Daraya, home to thousands of refugees who have fled a military crackdown on the central province of Homs.Major General Robert Mood, the chief of the UN observer mission deployed to Syria, said monitors touring the area had counted 85 bodies, including 34 children under the age of 10 and seven women.“Whoever started, whoever responded and whoever supported this deplorable act of violence should be held responsible.” Mood said about Friday’s assault.He told Al Jazeera that a residential area had been hit with a range of weapons, including “rifles, machine guns, artillery shells, tank shells,” but stressed that the circumstances that “led to the tragic deaths” were still unclear.“Whatever I learned on the ground in Syria ... is that I should not jump to conclusions.”