Syria slammed as refugees tell of atrocities

Around the country, 25 people were killed on Friday, including three in the Qabun Harrowing reports of atrocities committed during Syria's crackdown on protesters, including deserting soldiers' accounts of massacred civilians, sparked fresh international outrage Saturday.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed concern at the mounting death toll, while the United States and the EU urged President Bashar al-Asad to let aid workers in to help relieve the humanitarian crisis.
As the killing continued, Syrians mourned protesters shot dead by soldiers during earlier demonstrations.
An estimated 3,000 mourners on Saturday filed through the coastal city of Latakia for the funeral of one of at least nine protesters shot dead by security forces the day before, activists said.
Around the country, 25 people were killed on Friday, including three in the Qabun district of Damascus, after protesters took to the streets following the main weekly Muslim prayers, activists said.
As the death toll mounted, detailed accounts emerged from some of the thousands who fled to Turkey from the bloodshed in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughur.
Among them were Syrian army deserters who told of atrocities committed by soldiers in suppressing protests, who themselves were under the threat of execution if they disobeyed orders.
Tahal al-Lush described the operation, in Ar-Rastan, a town of 50,000 people in Homs province, that had pushed him to desert.
"We were told that people were armed there. But when we arrived, we saw that they were ordinary civilians. We were ordered to shoot them," said Lush, with a blank stare in his eyes.
"When we entered the houses, we opened fire on everyone, the young, the old... Women were raped in front of their husbands and children," he said.
He showed his military passbook and other papers as proof of identity.
A second conscript, Mohammed Mirwan Khalaf, said he had been in a unit stationed at Idlib, near the border.
"Just in front of me, a professional soldier pulled out his knife and stabbed a civilian in the head, for no reason," he said.
In the Turkish city of Antakya, Nabil, one of the last Syrian aid workers out of Jisr al-Shughur, recalled the roar of helicopters and a "skull split in two" before he collapsed with a bullet in his back.
From his hospital bed, the Red Crescent employee recounted his last sights of the town last weekend, where Damascus said 120 police and troops had been massacred during anti-regime protests.
"The wounded, yes, I've seen hundreds. And dozens of deaths, maybe a hundred," the 29-year-old said. He had also seen victims of torture, he added.
The turmoil has pushed 4,600 Syrians to seek refuge across the border in Turkey, a government official in Ankara told AFP.
"I am deeply concerned and saddened that so many people have been killed," Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to Colombia. He had spoken with Asad several times to express his concern, he said.
On Friday, UN officials said Asad was refusing to take telephone calls from Ban, as the UN Security Council discussed a resolution drawn up to condemn his crackdown.
Washington on Saturday called on Syria to let medics in, after reports that Syrian forces backed by helicopters had killed at least 25 protesters across the country, inclding in and around Jisr al-Shughur.
"The Syrian government’s offensive in northern Syria has created a humanitarian crisis," the White House said in a statement.
"The United States calls upon the Syrian government to stop this violence, and to give the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) immediate, unfettered access to this region," it added.
"If Syria's leaders fail to provide this access, they will once again be showing contempt for the dignity of the Syrian people."
The European Union also appealed to Asad to let international aid agencies in to help civilians caught up in the violence.
"I deplore the escalating use of brutal force against protestors in Syria in recent days," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement Saturday.
Both the EU and the US are backing a UN Security Council resolution proposed by Britain and France that condemns Syria for its crackdown.
But Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the council, oppose any resolution on Syria.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Saturday that the Security Council should support a resolution demanding an immediate end to the crackdown.
"A veto by Russia and China to protect the Syrian government and block efforts to stop the killings would be a serious betrayal of Syria's beleaguered citizens," said Philippe Bolopion, UN director at the rights watchdog.