Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Home
Business
Business Home
Economy
Technology
Media
Small Business
Legal
Deals
Earnings
Social Pulse
Business Video
The Freeland File
Markets
Markets Home
U.S. Markets
European Markets
Asian Markets
Global Market Data
Indices
M&A
Stocks
Bonds
Currencies
Commodities
Futures
Funds
peHUB
World
World Home
U.S.
Brazil
China
Euro Zone
Japan
Mexico
Russia
India Insight
World Video
Reuters Investigates
Decoder
Politics
Politics Home
Election 2012
Issues 2012
Candidates 2012
Tales from the Trail
Political Punchlines
Supreme Court
Politics Video
Tech
Technology Home
MediaFile
Science
Tech Video
Tech Tonic
Social Pulse
Opinion
Opinion Home
Chrystia Freeland
John Lloyd
Felix Salmon
Jack Shafer
David Rohde
Bernd Debusmann
Nader Mousavizadeh
Lucy P. Marcus
David Cay Johnston
Bethany McLean
Edward Hadas
Hugo Dixon
Ian Bremmer
Mohamed El-Erian
Lawrence Summers
Susan Glasser
The Great Debate
Steven Brill
Jack & Suzy Welch
Breakingviews
Equities
Credit
Private Equity
M&A
Macro & Markets
Politics
Breakingviews Video
Money
Money Home
Tax Break
Global Investing
MuniLand
Unstructured Finance
Linda Stern
Mark Miller
John Wasik
James Saft
Analyst Research
Alerts
Watchlist
Portfolio
Stock Screener
Fund Screener
Personal Finance Video
Money Clip
Investing 201
Life
Health
Sports
Arts
Faithworld
Business Traveler
Entertainment
Oddly Enough
Lifestyle Video
Pictures
Pictures Home
Reuters Photographers
Full Focus
Video
Reuters TV
Reuters News
Article
Comments (9)
Slideshow
Video
Full Focus
Photos of the week
Our top photos from the past week. Full Coverage
Images of February
Follow Reuters
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
YouTube
Read
Russian election satire takes Putin's manhood away
02 Mar 2012
UPDATE 2-Yelp prices IPO above range, valued at $900 mln
01 Mar 2012
UPDATE 2-Obama calls student as contraception fight turns nasty
02 Mar 2012
U.N. chief speaks of "grisly reports" from Syria
|
02 Mar 2012
Multiple tornadoes slam U.S. midsection, four dead in Indiana
|
02 Mar 2012
Discussed
108
Conservative activist Andrew Breitbart dies: LA coroner
68
Obama, Netanyahu set to confront divisions over Iran
51
Romney and Santorum in tight race in Michigan
Watched
U.S. Navy kicks off rail gun tests with a bang
Tue, Feb 28 2012
Argentine glacier makes a splash
Fri, Mar 2 2012
Syria accused over Homs siege
Fri, Mar 2 2012
U.N. chief speaks of "grisly reports" from Syria
Tweet
Share this
Email
Print
Related News
U.N. chief fears executions, torture in Syria's Homs
Fri, Mar 2 2012
Evacuated Syria reporters arrive in France
Fri, Mar 2 2012
Syria stops Red Cross entering Baba Amro
Fri, Mar 2 2012
I would not have survived in Baba Amro: MSF surgeon
Fri, Mar 2 2012
France to shut Syria embassy, awaits U.N. mandate to act
Fri, Mar 2 2012
U.N. chief slams Syria for "atrocious" Homs assault
Fri, Mar 2 2012
Analysis & Opinion
Healing power of photography
The femen phenomenon
Related Topics
World »
United Nations »
Syria »
Related Video
Red Cross aid convoy reaches Homs
Thu, Mar 1 2012
Wounded French journalist arrives in France
Syrians battle to buy bread
Freed Homs journalists safe
How Syria’s citizen journalists upload their video
1 of 2. Men wait to buy bread in front of a bakery shop during winter in Al Qusayr, a city in western Syria about 4.8km (3 miles) southwest of Homs, March 1, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS |
Fri Mar 2, 2012 7:15pm EST
BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had received "grisly reports" that Syrian government forces were arbitrarily executing, imprisoning and torturing people in the battle-scarred city of Homs after rebel fighters had fled.
Ban's comments came as a wounded British photographer, who escaped Homs earlier this week, said he had witnessed Syrian troops carrying out a massacre in the city's Baba Amro district, which had become a symbol of a year-long uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Opposition activists told Reuters Syrian troops, who had bombarded the district for weeks, had started hunting down and killing insurgents who had stayed to cover a rebel retreat on Thursday.
The rebel withdrawal was seen as a major setback for the armed revolt, that began with largely peaceful protests inspired by the "Arab Spring," but escalated after a bloody government crackdown.
"A major assault on Homs took place yesterday," Ban told the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Friday. "Civilian losses have clearly been heavy. We continue to received grisly reports of summary executions, arbitrary detentions and torture."
In some of his toughest criticism of Damascus to date, Ban added that "this atrocious assault is all the more appalling for having been waged by the government itself, systematically attacking its own people."
Syria's U.N. Ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, said Ban's remarks included "extremely virulent rhetoric which confines itself to slandering a government based on reports, opinions or hearsay."
"The secretary-general is not duly informed," he said, reiterating that the Syrian opposition consisted of "armed terrorist groups."
The International Committee of the Red Cross said an aid convoy had reached Baba Amro, but was not allowed to enter.
"It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help," ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said in a statement.
"We are staying in Homs tonight in the hope of entering Baba Amro in the very near future."
One activist in Homs told Reuters: "The Syrian army was holding the convoy up because they want to clean up after what they have done in Baba Amro." As with other activist reports from Homs, this could not be independently confirmed.
"All men who remained in the neighborhood aged between 14 and 50 were arrested. We fear they will be massacred. Where is the world?" said one activist.
"The massacres are continuing. They are torturing them and killing (detainees) one by one. They are executing them in batches," another activist, who left Baba Amro on Friday, told Reuters via Skype.
Many fighters out of the 2,000 who were based in Baba Amro were killed and wounded in the onslaught, they said, adding that a final toll was impossible to give because of the heavy shelling and siege. Hundreds were reported to have fled.
"IT'S A MASSACRE"
British photographer Paul Conroy, who escaped Homs earlier this week after suffering leg injuries in the shelling, said on Friday there had been a daily, indiscriminate barrage of the city.
"I've worked in many war zones - I've never seen or been in shelling like this," the Sunday Times photographer told Sky News from a hospital bed in central London.
"I'm an ex-artillery gunner so I can kind of follow the patterns - they are systematically moving through neighborhoods with munitions that are used for battlefields.
"It's not a war, it's a massacre, an indiscriminate massacre of men, woman and children."
Conroy said thousands of people were still in Homs, without power or water, and with hardly any food.
"In years to come we're going to sit and we're going to go 'How did we let this happen under our nose'. There are rooms full of people waiting to die."
The Syrian government said on Friday it would like to express its "sadness and sorrow" at the death of Conroy's Sunday Times colleague, U.S. journalist Marie Colvin, who was killed in the Homs shelling.
The Paris prosecutor's office said on Friday it had opened a preliminary investigation for murder and attempted murder into the bombing that also killed French photographer Remi Ochlik and seriously wounded journalist Edith Bouvier.
Defiant protesters took to the streets after Friday prayers in towns and cities across Syria - including Homs, Hama, Deir al-Zor, Deraa, Douma and several districts in Damascus, television footage showed.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 13 people were killed when troops fired a mortar bomb at a protest in the town of Rastan. Independent verification of such reports is hard as foreign media are mostly barred from Syria.
In Geneva, the United Nations human rights body had earlier said Assad had obligations under international law.
"We are alarmed at reports starting to come out of the Baba Amro district of Homs after it was taken over by government forces yesterday," spokesman Rupert Colville said.
Conditions in the heavily bombarded district are hellish. TV footage showed heavy snow and freezing weather, with residents lacking electricity or fuel for heating.
Barely a building has escaped damage from artillery shelling and many are pock-marked with bullet holes.
The United Nations says Syrian security forces have killed more than 7,500 civilians since the revolt began last March. Syria's government said in December that "armed terrorists" had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police during the unrest.
(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny, Oliver Holmes and Laila Bassam in Beirut, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Nour Merza in Dubai, Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Samia Nakhoul, Editing by Giles Elgood and Andrew Heavens)
World
United Nations
Syria
Related Quotes and News
Company
Price
Related News
Tweet this
Link this
Share this
Digg this
Email
Reprints
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (9)
Austell wrote:
Edition:
U.S.
Africa
Arabic
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latin America
Mexico
Russia
Spain
United Kingdom
Back to top
Reuters.com
Business
Markets
World
Politics
Technology
Opinion
Money
Pictures
Videos
Site Index
Legal
Bankruptcy Law
California Legal
New York Legal
Securities Law
Support & Contact
Support
Corrections
Advertise With Us
Connect with Reuters
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
RSS
Podcast
Newsletters
Mobile
About
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Copyright
Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider
An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution
A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance
Our next generation legal research platform
Our global tax workstation
Thomsonreuters.com
About Thomson Reuters
Investor Relations
Careers
Contact Us
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.