Human Rights Watch: Syrian troops executed civilians

Rights group says regime forces have executed more than 100 civilians in past four months

9 April 2012, 11:57 am

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A Free Syrian Army fighter in a suburb of Damascus, Syria (photo credit: AP)

BEIRUT (AP) — A leading international human-rights group says Syrian forces have summarily executed more than 100 people, most of them civilians.

Monday’s report by Human Rights Watch says this includes several mass executions in the restive provinces of Homs and Idlib. The New-York-based group says it only included cases corroborated by witnesses, but has received more reports of similar incidents.

The executions took place over the past four months, with most in March.

Syrian forces are escalating attacks across the country to try to crush a 13-month uprising against President Bashar Assad.

An internationally brokered truce required Syrian forces to pull out of population centers by Tuesday. But Assad’s government now wants guarantees that rebels will lay down their arms, and the UN-brokered plan to stop the bloodshed in Syria effectively collapsed Sunday.

On Sunday, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said that ahead of any troop pullback, the government needs written guarantees from opposition fighters that they will lay down their weapons.

The commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Riad Asaad, said that while his group is ready to abide by a truce, it does not recognize the regime “and for that reason we will not give guarantees.”