Syria faces diplomatic backlash over massacre

US and others expel ambassadors in protest as UN suggests many in Houla were executed and Annan meets Assad in Damascus. Syrian ambassadors and diplomats have been expelled from countries including the US, several European Union nations and Gulf Arab states in protest over a massacre blamed by witnesses on pro-government forces. A UN report issued on Tuesday into the killings in Houla last week said that 49 children and 34 women were among the 108 people who died, with some of the victims "summarily executed". But it did not decisively say who carried out most of the killings. Other nations joining the action on Tuesday included the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands in what Washington described as a move "in co-ordination with partner countries". Victoria Nuland, the US state department spokesperson, said the US held "the Syrian government responsible for this slaughter of innocent lives". William Hague, the UK's foreign secretary, said the countries involved in Tuesday's expulsions would also push for tougher sanctions against Syria. "This is the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion of what has happened in Syria," said Bob Carr, the Australian foreign minister, in Canberra. Friday's killings in Houla, a collection of farming villages in Homs province that has become a focal point for opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad', was one of the deadliest single events in the 15-month-old uprising against Assad that has killed thousands. Kofi Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria who is currently in Damascus for crisis talks aimed at rescuing an increasingly beleaguered six-point peace plan, held talks with Assad on Tuesday to express what his spokesperson called "the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria". 'Frank' talks "He conveyed in frank terms his view to President Assad that the six-point plan cannot succeed without bold steps to stop the violence and release detainees, and stressed the importance of full implementation of the plan," said Ahmed Fawzi. Annan, a former UN secretary-general, arrived in Syria a day earlier, and held meetings with UN observers and Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister. Annan has called the Houla killing "an appalling moment with profound consequences". In his meeting with Annan, Muallem explained "the truth of what is happening in Syria and the attacks against law and order which are aimed at sowing chaos... [despite] the reforms that Syria has adopted in all areas", the official SANA news agency said. The success of Annan's peace plan depended on "the end of terrorism", Assad told him on Tuesday, state television reported. Tuesday's meeting in Damascus came as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that entire families had been shot in their homes and that fewer than 20 of the 108 Houla victims were killed by artillery. Most of the victims, including children, were shot at close range, the UN human rights office said. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the body, said the conclusions were based on accounts gathered by UN monitors and corroborated by other sources. 'Summarily executed' "Most of the ... victims were summarily executed in two separate incidents," Colville said in Geneva, Switzerland. He said witnesses blamed armed pro-government forces, known as "shabiha", for the attacks. He noted that the shabiha sometimes acted "in concert" with government forces. The UN has said that government forces fired tank shells and artillery at Houla, but has stopped short of holding the government entirely responsible. Assad's regime has denied any role in the killings, blaming them on "armed terrorists" who attacked army positions in the area and slaughtered innocent civilians. "What is very clear is that this was an absolutely abominable event that happened in Houla and at least a substantial part of it was summary executions of civilians including women and children," Colville said. Activists have posted videos of tanks and armoured vehicles in the middle of cities, a violation of Annan's six-point peace plan, and UN observers said they found spent tank and artillery shells in Houla after the massacre there.