AMMAN (AP) — Dozens of bodies have been buried in mass graves in a Syrian town where activists claim more than 300 people have been killed in the past week.
A British-based activist group says 32 bodies were found in the streets of the Damascus suburb (Daraya) today. It says they had been killed by "gunfire and summary executions."
That group says at least 320 people have been killed in the past week in a major government offensive to take back control of rebel-held areas in and around the capital. Another activist group puts the death toll at almost twice that number.
Britain's minister for Middle East affairs, Alistair Burt, says if confirmed, the massacre "would be an atrocity on a new scale requiring unequivocal condemnation from the entire international community."
President Bashar Assad, in comments carried by state media, reiterated his long-standing claim that a foreign plot was behind the uprising against his rule and said he would not allow it to succeed "whatever the price might be."
%@AP Links
146-v-30-(Charles de Ledesma, correspondent)--Britain has condemned what it refers to as a 'brutal massacre' in Syria. Correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports. (26 Aug 2012)
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122-v-29-(Mark Lavie (lah-VEE'), AP Middle East correspondent)--The bodies of more than 30 civilians have been found near Damascus. More from AP Middle East Correspondent Mark Lavie in Cairo. (26 Aug 2012)
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APPHOTO CAI125: This citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network, taken on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012, purports to show people killed by shabiha, pro-government militiamen, being buried in a mass grave in Daraya, Syria. According to activists' accounts, government forces retook the Damascus suburb of Daraya from rebel control three days ago and have since gone on a killing spree. Reports of the death toll range widely from more than 300 to as many as 600. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS CITIZEN JOURNALIST IMAGE (26 Aug 2012)
<<APPHOTO CAI125 (08/26/12)>>
