Syria atrocities force families to flee over border to Lebanon

 
Bo Wilson6 March 2012

Up to 2,000 Syrian refugees have fled over the border to Lebanon from atrocities by government forces hunting down rebels.

Women and small children arrived in the Lebanese border village of Qaa carrying only plastic bags filled with a few belongings. “We fled the shelling and the strikes,” said Hassana Abu Firas, who had come with two families who had fled shelling in their town of

al-Qusair in Homs province, where the government has waged a brutal offensive for a month.

“What are we supposed to do? People are sitting in their homes and they are hitting us with tanks,” she said. “Those who can flee, do. Those who can’t will die sitting down.”

Atrocities were reported in Homs, with one woman telling the BBC that soldiers had killed her son a day after rebel fighters withdrew from the Baba Amr district. “My son’s throat was cut,” she said. “He was 12.”

Her husband said he was hiding about 160 feet away and saw one soldier hold down their son’s head with his boot while another killed him. “I could hear their screams,” he added.

The UN refugee agency said 2,000 Syrians had poured into Lebanon in the past two days but Lebanese security officials say more than 10,000 are in the country. Turkey says it has more than 11,000 Syrians in camps along the border and Jordan’s government said it had more than 80,000.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said she would go to Syria tomorrow and wanted unhindered access to provide aid. Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan is also due to visit Syria at the weekend as joint special envoy for the UN and the Arab League. In the US, Senator John McCain called for air strikes against Syria. He said America had a moral and strategic obligation to force out President Assad.

“The only realistic way to do so is with foreign airpower,” Mr McCain told the Senate. “The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centres in Syria, especially in the north, through air strikes on Assad’s forces.”

Activists say hundreds have been killed in the offensive against Homs over the past month. The UN puts the death toll from a year of violence in Syria at 7,500 but activists say it is more.

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