Outrage as Syria massacres over 100 civilians, including children

New pressure was being heaped on the ruling Syrian regime last night after it emerged more than 100 civilians including dozens of children were massacred in an atrocity which has prompted international outrage.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was “absolutely sickened” by the killings in the town of Houla and called for international action to prevent Syria descending into a full civil war

Dismissing the claims of President Bashar Assad’s regime that it was not responsible for the slaughter, he will today summon the Syrian charge d’affaires to the Foreign Office to receive a dressing-down over the attacks.

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He said the killings “illuminate the type of tyranny that the people in Syria have been experiencing”.

“It is a familiar tactic of the Assad regime to blame others for what’s happening in their country to try to get out of responsibility for the scale of the destruction,” Mr Hague added.

“We are absolutely sickened in the British government and across the international community by what we’ve seen over the last few days, in particular about the deaths of more than 100 unarmed men, women and children.”

The UN Security Council was meeting last night to hear details of the massacre amid reports the majority of those who were killed were slashed with knives or shot at point-blank range.

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After what was one of bloodiest episodes in the country’s 14-month-old uprising, gruesome video footage emerged showing rows of dead Syrian children lying in a mosque with gaping head wounds. UN observers said the dead included 32 children under the age of 10. Some 300 people are believed to have been injured.

The Syrian regime said it was being subjected to a “tsunami of lies” and claimed that anti-government gunmen carried out the attack.

The massacre comes after a Syrian general with links to President Assad declared his determination to come to Britain for the London Olympics.

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