Syrian envoys booted out over regime’s ‘execution of families’

German, Italian and Spanish foreign ministries announced yesterday that Syrian ambassadors were being expelled – following similar moves by Britain, France, Australia, the US and Canada.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Germany and its allies hope “that this unambiguous message does not fall on deaf ears in Damascus”.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said its conclusions were based on accounts gathered by UN monitors and corroborated by other sources.

Its announcement came as Foreign Secretary William Hague announced Syria’s Charge D’Affaires was being expelled from Britain as an expression of “horror” at the behaviour of the regime.

Two other diplomats are also to leave the country within seven days but the embassy will not be closed.

In Paris, French president Francois Hollande says Syria’s ambassador was being expelled, and was expected to leave “today or tomorrow”. He gave no other details.

France will host a meeting in early July of the so-called Friends of Syria seeking a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Mr Colville said UN monitors had found fewer than 20 of the 108 people killed in the west-central area of Houla died by artillery fire.

“Most of the rest of the victims were summarily executed in two separate incidents,” Mr Colville said in Geneva. “At this point it looks like entire families were shot in their houses.”

He said witnesses blamed pro-government thugs known as shabiha for the attacks, noting that they sometimes operate “in concert” with government forces.

The killings in a collection of farming villages called Houla near the central Syrian city of Homs last week have drawn fresh attention to the Syrian conflict, in part because of the brutality of the massacre. Activists posted amateur videos online showing shells exploding in the village, dismembered bodies in the streets, then rows of dozens of dead laid out before being buried in a mass grave.

According to the state-run news agency, Sana, President Bashar Assad is blaming terrorists and weapons smugglers for scuttling the peace plan brokered by former UN chief Kofi Annan, who has also condemned the deaths in Houla.

The regime denies there is any popular will behind the country’s uprising, saying foreign extremists and terrorists are driving the unrest.

Deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad said: “It is irrational that any party who wants to make Annan’s mission a success would ever commit such a massacre.”

He added the government had not “committed a single violation” of the plan.

In a statement explaining the expulsions from the US, the State Department described the massacre as a “vicious assault involving tanks and artillery – weapons that only the regime possesses”.

Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland added: “We hold the Syrian government responsible for this slaughter of innocent lives.”

The UN has said government forces fired tank shells and artillery at Houla, but stopped short of blaming them for Friday’s killings. Activists said most of the victims were killed by pro-government thugs who stormed the area after clashes with local rebels, but the regime categorically denied any involvement.

Mr Annan met Assad in Damascus yesterday, but Syria’s state new agency reported no further details.