Syria's opposition urged the world to unite in action against the Assad regime on Friday after as many as 200 Sunni villagers were reportedly killed in the worst civilian massacre of the uprising.
Survivors and activists told of how gunmen went from house to house clinically
executing survivors while others were shot dead as they tried to escape
through the fields surrounding the village, which lies in Syria's
western province of Hama.
The bloodshed marked the third large-scale massacre in Syria since mid-May,
all of which have involved Sunni villages located in areas dominated by
members of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority.
The operation began in the early hours of Thursday morning as the army sealed
off roads leading into the village, before launching a ferocious bombardment
that involved tanks, mortars and helicopter gunships.
Many of those killed died when shells struck a mosque where panicked villagers
had taken shelter, one activist said.
After the small numbers of rebels defending the village were overwhelmed,
soldiers and members of the largely Alawite Shabiha militia moved in to
begin inflicting reprisals.
"It appears that Alawite militiamen from surrounding villages descended on Tremseh after its rebel defenders pulled out, and started killing the people," Fadi Sameh, an opposition activist from the village, told Reuters.
"Whole houses have been destroyed and burnt from the shelling. Every family in the town seems to have members killed. We have names of men, women and children from countless families."
The Hama Revolutionary Council claimed that the total death toll reached 220.
"They died from bombardment by tanks and helicopters, artillery shelling and summary executions," it said.
The Syrian government said that 50 people had died in the village, but claimed that the massacre was carried out by rebels and foreign journalists.
"The bloodthirsty media in collaboration with gangs of armed terrorists massacred residents of Tremseh village ... to sway public opinion against Syria and its people and provoke international intervention on the eve of a UN Security Council meeting," state-run news agency SANA said.
The first reports of the killings filtered through as the United Nations Security Council held a closed-door session to debate a resolution to threaten the Assad regime with mandatory sanctions if it failed to implement an updated peace plan.
But Russia threatened to veto it, demonstrating the continued paralysis of the international response to the Syrian crisis.
Syria's main opposition alliance said that the massacre left the international community with no choice but to act.
"To stop this bloody madness which threatens the entity of Syria, as well as peace and the security in the region and in the world, requires an urgent and sharp resolution of the Security Council under Chapter VII (of the UN Charter) which protects the Syrian people," the Syrian National Council said.
Chapter VII allows for punitive measures against regimes considered a threat to the peace, including economic sanctions and military intervention.
"We expect members of the Security Council to assume total responsibility to protect defenceless Syrians against these shameful crimes," the council added, calling the massacre "among the more infamous genocides of the Syrian regime."
"It appears that Alawite militiamen from surrounding villages descended on Tremseh after its rebel defenders pulled out, and started killing the people," Fadi Sameh, an opposition activist from the village, told Reuters.
"Whole houses have been destroyed and burnt from the shelling. Every family in the town seems to have members killed. We have names of men, women and children from countless families."
The Hama Revolutionary Council claimed that the total death toll reached 220.
"They died from bombardment by tanks and helicopters, artillery shelling and summary executions," it said.
The Syrian government said that 50 people had died in the village, but claimed that the massacre was carried out by rebels and foreign journalists.
"The bloodthirsty media in collaboration with gangs of armed terrorists massacred residents of Tremseh village ... to sway public opinion against Syria and its people and provoke international intervention on the eve of a UN Security Council meeting," state-run news agency SANA said.
The first reports of the killings filtered through as the United Nations Security Council held a closed-door session to debate a resolution to threaten the Assad regime with mandatory sanctions if it failed to implement an updated peace plan.
But Russia threatened to veto it, demonstrating the continued paralysis of the international response to the Syrian crisis.
Syria's main opposition alliance said that the massacre left the international community with no choice but to act.
"To stop this bloody madness which threatens the entity of Syria, as well as peace and the security in the region and in the world, requires an urgent and sharp resolution of the Security Council under Chapter VII (of the UN Charter) which protects the Syrian people," the Syrian National Council said.
Chapter VII allows for punitive measures against regimes considered a threat to the peace, including economic sanctions and military intervention.
"We expect members of the Security Council to assume total responsibility to protect defenceless Syrians against these shameful crimes," the council added, calling the massacre "among the more infamous genocides of the Syrian regime."
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