The U.N. Security Council on Sunday unanimously condemned the killing of at least 108 people, including many children, in the Syrian town of Houla, a sign of mounting outrage at the massacre that the government and rebels blamed on each other.
Images of bloodied and lifeless young bodies, laid carefully side by side after the onslaught on Friday, triggered shock around the world and underlined the failure of a six-week-old U.N. ceasefire plan to stop the violence.
Western and Arab states opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad put the blame for the deaths squarely on the government. But Damascus rejected the charge.
The United Nations believes that at least 108 people were killed in Houla, U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said.
Russia, which along with China has vetoed two Security Council resolutions calling for tougher action against Damascus, said the "tragic" events in Syria deserve condemnation and called for a U.N. assessment of the violence there.
Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexander Pankin said the circumstances surrounding the massacre were "murky" and rejected the idea that the evidence clearly showed Damascus was guilty.
The head of the U.N. observer force, General Robert Mood, briefed the council by video link. Pankin said Mood "did not link directly the (army's) shelling with numbers of deaths."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent the council a letter that appeared to give ammunition to both sides.
He said the observers "viewed the bodies of the dead and confirmed from an examination of ordnance that artillery and tank shells were fired at a residential neighbourhood." The rebels do not have artillery and tanks.
But Ban also said U.N. monitors observed shotgun wounds on some of the bodies, which could indicate close-range attacks by rebels, as Pankin suggested, or could be the result of follow-up attacks by the army after it stopped shelling.
International mediator Kofi Annan and Ladsous are expected to brief the council on Syria on Wednesday.
RUSSIA OPPOSES SANCTIONS
British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant did not have any doubts about who was responsible for the events in Houla.
"It seems quite clear that the massacre in Houla was caused by heavy bombardment, by government artillery and tanks," Lyall Grant said. After the council meeting he said it was time for the council to discuss "next steps" – a code word for sanctions.
"The fact is, it is an atrocity and it was perpetrated by the Syrian government," Lyall Grant said.
Russia, however, rejects the idea of sanctioning its ally and has accused the United States and Europe of pursuing Libya-style regime change in Syria, where Assad has been trying to crush a 14-month-old insurgency that began peacefully but has become increasingly militarized.
Syria is home to the Russian navy's only warm-water port outside of the former Soviet Union and is a major purchaser of Russian weapons.
In his public comments, Mood has called the killings "a very tragical expression" of the situation in Syria, but refrained from apportioning blame.
"For myself, I have had patrols on the ground all the day yesterday afternoon and today we are gathering facts on the ground and then we will draw our own conclusions," Mood told the BBC in a telephone interview on Sunday.
But Ban and Annan, the U.N. and Arab League envoy for Syria, accused the Syrian government of using artillery in populated areas.
Annan is planning to visit Damascus soon. Ja'afari suggested Annan could arrive as early as Monday.
