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Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, however, accused the West ofignoring violence by "terrorists" and said he would demand anexplanation from Annan when he visits Damascus later this month. "After regime forces raided the neighbourhood of Shammas (in thecentral city of Homs), 15 civilians were found summarily executed,"Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights toldAFP, in what he branded a massacre. The overnight killings came a day the Observatory accused troops ofanother massacre in the town of Khan Sheikhun, in the northwesternprovince of Idlib, when they opened fire on a funeral processionand reportedly killed 20 people. At least 12 more people were killed in incidents around the countryon Wednesday, the Observatory said, while another four died ofwounds suffered during the funeral in Khan Sheikhun. During Tuesday's funeral, a convoy of UN observers was struck by ahomemade bomb, damaging three vehicles but causing no casualties. Because of blast damage to their car, six members of the team wereforced to spend the night with activists in Khan Sheikhun, whichcame under heavy regime shelling, an activist said. Annan's office said the UN mission had picked up the six militaryobservers and that they were back at their team site in the centralcity of Hama. It was the second roadside bombing involving the militaryobservers' vehicles in less than a week, after six Syrian soldiersescorting a convoy were wounded in a May 9 bombing in Daraa. The United Nations, which accuses both sides of violating an April12 ceasefire, reaffirmed its condemnation of any violence againstthe monitors. Meanwhile Syrian representatives stayed away from a United Nationsanti-torture committee meeting in Geneva that raised allegations ofsystematic and brutal abuses in the violence-wracked nation. Committee Chairman Claudio Grossman had written to Syrianauthorities to question them about reports of torture in thecountry where a bloody crackdown on protesters was unleashed inMarch 2011. But the call for a special report on the situation went unmet andDamascus questioned the committee's authority to request thedocument. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged the internationalcommunity to increase pressure on the embattled regime of Assad,whom he said was "doomed". Assad's departure would be a "major blow" to Iran as well asHezbollah and Islamic Jihad, he told CNN. However Assad, in an interview with Russian state news channelRossia-24, accused the West of ignoring the real situation in hiscountry. He complained that, since the arrival of the UN observers there hadbeen an increase in "terrorist attacks" despite a reduction in"direct confrontation" between government forces and their foes. "The West only talks about violence, violence on the governmentside. There is not a word about the terrorists. We are stillwaiting," he said. "I will ask him (Annan) what this is about" whenhe next visits Syria. Assad denounced the armed opposition as a gang of "criminals" whohe said contained religious extremists, including members ofAl-Qaeda. He also said many "foreign mercenaries" from Arab statesfighting for the rebels had been killed. Turning to legislative elections held on May 7, Assad said theyshowed that the Syrian people "are until now supporting the policyof reform" and "support the institutions of the state." Voter turnout was only 51.26 percent and, so far, only limitedresults have been released. The state news agency SANA reported that 250 people detained inrelation to the revolt in Syria but "whose hands were not bloodied"were released on Wednesday. According to the Syrian Observatory, around 25,000 people arecurrently detained in Syria. Annan's peace plan calls for therelease of those detained in relation to the uprising. Meanwhile, Annan himself urged Syria to stop delaying an agreementon allowing UN access to more than one million Syrians in need ofassistance, saying the process had been "very slow." More than 12,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have diedsince the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, accordingto the Observatory, including more than 900 killed since the trucecame into effect. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Syria's rebels haveseen an influx of arms including anti-tank weaponry, in an effortcoordinated with the help of the United States. Officials in President Barack Obama's administration insist it isnot directly supplying the weapons or providing funding, with Gulfstates paying for the new arms, the newspaper said. But Washington has stepped up links with the rebels and regionalmilitaries allying with them, playing a role in the rebel's foreignsupport network, the report said. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Fake Grass Carpet Manufacturer , Commercial Door Mats, and more. For more , please visit Entry Door Mats today!
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