Annan: Syrian massacre of 108 civilians ‘appalling’

UN peace envoy Kofi Annan condemned the killing of at least 108 people in the Syrian town of Houla as “an appalling crime” and urged president Bashar al-Assad to prove he wants a peaceful resolution to the crisis racking his country.

Assad’s forces killed at least 41 people in an artillery assault on the city of Hama, activists said, shortly after the UN Security Council condemned the massacre in nearby Houla that took place on Friday.

With international criticism growing of Assad’s methods in trying to crush a 14-month-old uprising, now accompanied by a lightly armed insurgency, UN/Arab League envoy Annan arrived in Damascus for talks on his faltering peace plan.