WarSclerotic

Syrian President Bashar Assad and peace envoy Kofi Annan met in Damascus on Tuesday, as the United Nations human rights office said that most of the 108 victims of the “massacre” in the town of Houla may have been summarily executed and not killed in artillery barrages as had originally been reported.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, opposition sources said that Syrian insurgents killed 20 soldiers in heavy fighting around a northern Syrian town close to the border with Turkey. They said six civilians and six rebels, including two rebel commanders, were also killed over the past 24 hours in the fighting after the army launched an offensive with tanks and helicopters to retake the region around Atareb in Aleppo province, 18 km (11 miles) east of the Turkish border.

Annan is attempting to salvage a six-week-old peace plan, backed by the United Nations and the Arab League, that has barely slowed the bloodshed in a 14-month-old uprising against Assad.

The former UN secretary general left the presidential palace after a meeting of around two hours. He had been expected to urge compliance with the ceasefire deal, designed to end a revolt that began with peaceful mass protests but has turned more and more into an armed insurgency.

On arrival in Damascus on Monday, Annan called on the authorities to act to end the killing after what he called the “appalling crime” late last week in the Syrian town of Houla, in which at least 108 people, almost half of them children, were killed.

The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that fewer than 20 of the 108 people confirmed as having been killed in the “appalling massacre” in the Syrian town of Houla died from artillery and tank fire,

Survivors have told UN investigators that most of the other victims died in two bouts of summary executions carried out by pro-government “shabbiha” militiamen in the nearby village of Taldaou, UN rights spokesman Rupert Colville said.

“I believe at this point, and I would stress we are at very preliminary stages, that under 20 of the 108 can be attributed to artillery and tank fire,” he told a news briefing in Geneva.

Some 49 children and 34 women were among the known victims, but the toll was not definitive, he said, adding: “There are reports of more deaths.”

“Almost half of the ones we know of so far are children – that is totally unpardonable – and a very large number of women as well,” Colville said.

“At this point it looks like entire families were shot in their houses.”

The Syrian government has denied perpetrating the killing in Houla, blaming the assault on Islamist terrorists.

“During this time, Syria has not committed a single violation of Annan’s plan or the initial understanding between Syria and the United Nations,” Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told reporters in Damascus.

“At the same time, the other party has not committed to a single point. This means that there is a decision by the armed groups and the opposition not to implement Annan’s plan and to make it fail.”

Both France and Turkey spoke out against the Syrian regime on Tuesday as Annan was attempting to salvage the ceasefire. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in remarks published in Le Monde on Tuesday that “Assad is the murderer of his people. He must relinquish power. The sooner the better.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned the killings at Houla and said there was a limit to the world’s patience over ending the bloodshed.

“To carry out this kind of murder, to shamefully murder 50 innocent children, 110 innocent civilians, while the United Nations observer mission is carrying out its mission in Syria… is torture, it is wretched,” Erdogan said.

“There is also a limit to patience, and I believe that, God willing, there is also a limit to the patience in the UN Security Council,” Erdogan told a weekly meeting of his ruling AK Party.