Dubai Pro-government Syrian gunmen lined up at least 10 people and killed them execution-style in a restive neighborhood in the city of Homs, activists said Friday.
The allegation came as the International Committee of the Red Cross dispatched an aid convoy to the Baba Amr neighbourhood a day after government forces stormed the area that had been under a tight siege and daily shelling for nearly a month.
France said Friday it is closing its embassy in Syria, a day after two French journalists escaped to Lebanon after being trapped for days in the central city of Homs.
House-to-house raids, executions
Bassel Fouad, a Syrian activist who fled to Lebanon from Baba Amr two days ago, said that Syrian troops and pro-government gunmen known as shabiha were conducting house-to-house raids, arrests and executions.
EU leaders Friday pledged to hold accountable those responsible for the bloodshed.
“I have a clear message for those in authority in Syria: turn your back on this criminal regime or face justice for the blood that is on your hands,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said.
“We will make sure, as we did in Serbia, that there is a day of reckoning for those who are responsible,” he said. Assad’s regime was “butchering its own people,” Cameron added.
The U.N. has estimated that more than 7,500 people have been killed since the uprising began nearly a year ago. Activists put the death toll at over 8,000.
