Beirut: Three entire families, including women and children, were massacred overnight in the flashpoint city of Homs by the Syrian government's security forces and thugs, activists said yesterday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the 20 dead were from the Ghantawi, Terkawi and Zamel families, who were all gunned down in their homes.
Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Britain-based group, said one family of five included a 15-year-old girl and two other children aged five and seven. Another family had seven members and the third eight.
Abdul Rahman said the three families were shot dead after the regime forces and government-backed militiamen known as Shabiha stormed their homes overnight in the Homs neighbourhoods of Karm Al Zeytoun and Naziheen.
Over 50 people were reportedly killed in Homs yesterday as Syrian forces continued shelling the city for the fifth day. Despite the killings, Russia warned against outside interference in Syria, as Britain and France expressed strong doubt Damascus would live up to promises to end its violent repression of dissidents.
Conference
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned the West against behaving "like a bull in a china shop", saying Syrians themselves should be allowed to decide their own fate.
"Of course, we condemn violence from whichever side it comes, but we must not behave like a bull in a china shop. We need to allow people to decide their own fate independently," Russian news agencies quoted him as saying.
Moscow sparked Western anger last week by joining Beijing in using its veto at the Security Council to block UN action against the Damascus regime following its latest military offensive on protesters in the city of Homs.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday pointedly sidestepped a question from a reporter who asked him whether Russia had asked Bashar Al Assad to go in his talks with the Syrian president the day before.
Turkey has offered to hold an international conference "as soon as possible" with regional players and world powers to solve the crisis, its foreign minister said yesterday.
The conference could take place in Turkey or in another country, but it must certainly be "in the region" and "as soon as possible", Ahmet Davutoglu said in a televised interview.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe dismissed promises made to Lavrov by Al Assad to end the bloodshed, terming them "manipulation". In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron also dismissed Al Assad's promises. "I think we have very little confidence in that," Cameron said.
No confidence
Britain will now press for stronger EU sanctions and will increase support for opposition groups inside and outside the country, Cameron said.
Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium have all recalled their ambassadors to Syria for consultations, while Germany decided to leave the vacant post empty for now.
Meanwhile, European Union officials in Brussels said they were making contingency plans in case EU citizens had to be rapidly evacuated from Syria, while mulling a ban on flights in and out of that country.
