Syria's regime is a terrorist now fact.

Syria shelling killed over 90 - opposition

The death toll has risen to at least 90 from Syrian shelling on the town of Houla today, an opposition group said today.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said residents continued to flee the town, in central Homs province, in fear that artillery fire would resume.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of the accounts from Syria, which has restricted access for journalists during a 14-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

Opposition activists said on Friday that Syrian forces opened fire with artillery after skirmishing with insurgents in Houla, a cluster of villages north of the city of Homs.

Various opposition activists put the death toll at over 50 by early this morning. Footage posted to web sites showed bloodied and mangled corpses described as the victims of the shelling.




Human rights crimes still taking place in Syria - UN

Syrian government forces and opposition fighters are committing gross human rights violations despite a six-week-old ceasefire in the conflict and children are often the victims, United Nations investigators say in a report.

Syrian army and security services committed most of the crimes documented since March, including heavy shelling of residential areas and executions, it said today.

Armed rebels executed or tortured captured soldiers and pro-government supporters, and abducted civilians in an apparent bid to secure prison exchanges or ransoms, it said.

"Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the commission in this update were committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search operations conducted in locations known for hosting defectors and/or armed persons, or perceived as supportive of anti-government armed groups," the report said.

Children were frequently among those killed and wounded during attacks on protests and the bombardment of towns and villages by state forces, it said.

The team of investigators, lead by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro, has not been allowed into Syria, but based their report on more than 200 interviews of victims and witnesses conducted in the region and Geneva.

They were able to confirm 207 deaths during the two-month period. The United Nations is deploying up to 300 unarmed military observers in Syria to monitor an April 12 truce that has yet to take hold.

Security forces used lethal force against demonstrations in Aleppo, Damascus, Deraa, Hama, Homs, Idlib and in numerous villages across the country since March, the report said.

"Other unlawful killings took place during government military operations undertaken to weed out defectors, anti-government armed groups, their families and other opponents perceived to be supporting anti-government armed groups."

The UN panel said it had received multiple reports of the armed opposition executing members of the army and security forces, suspected informers and collaborators.

It has already drawn up a secret list of Syrian officials suspected of ordering crimes against humanity and handed it over to UN rights chief Navi Pillay.

She has said that the situation in Syria should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution.