THE ENGINEERED FOG OF WAR

Yesterday there were allegations in the New York Times that because the families who were murdered were Sunni that showed that it must have been the Syrian government or their supporters who slaughtered them. I showed that this is not necessarily true giving an example of the Sunni opposition bragging of how they executed Sunnis for supporting Assad.

I also questioned how it could be that, according to witnesses and the FSA, the local militia could openly walk the streets of Houla for at least 7 hours and possibly for upto 11 hours, in army fatigues, cutting the throats of children, when Houla is supposed to be controlled by the FSA, and this after the FSA had attacked two roadblocks in Houla just hours before the FSA alleges the militia began their slaughter of the innocents.

I asked, where were the FSA? Where did they go? Why did they attack roadblocks but allowed the local militia to allegedly slaughter children for at least 7 hours?

The Guardian Editorial today has this to say.

For months, the adjoining Allawite villagers heard the chants of defiance from Houla, which had become a stronghold of the opposition militia and home of many of the families of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

[source : Syria: horror of Houla, The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/28/syria-horror-of-houla, 29/05/2012]

So Houla was "a stronghold" of the FSA.

So was Houla a Sunni community?

Yes. Type in "Houla Sunni" into your favourite government spying tool search engine and you will find many articles and commentators telling you that Houla was Sunni. Here is one from Der Spiegel.

That development is a departure from recent decades, during which Houla residents have largely been silent. The town is actually a collection of four Sunni villages, surrounded by three Alawite villages and a Shiite settlement. Assad and most of his government and security units are Alawite, whereas his closest regime allies, Iran and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, are Shiite. Sunni Houla seemed surrounded by pro-regime towns.

But last winter a unit of the Free Syrian Army took up residence in the town and it has been considered liberated since then. While the Syrian military still controlled roads into the town, residents felt safe in openly protesting the Damascus regime -- as they did on Friday.

[source : The Houla Massacre Marks a New Level of Violence, Der Speigel, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/massacre-in-syrian-town-houla-marks-a-new-level-of-violence-a-835548.html, 28/05/2012]

So Houla was Sunni and controlled by the FSA.

But were the families who were murdered Sunni AND supporters of Assad?

It now appears so.

A few more details have emerged from the Syrian government side.

The ministry clarified that the crime was premeditated , indicating that the residents of this area were supporters of the Syrian Arab army which has cost them their lives.

[source : Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates: Armed Terrorist Groups Committed Taldao, al-Shoumarieh Massacres, SANA, http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/05/29/422081.htm, 29/05/2012]

So it looks like the families who were murdered were Sunni but supporters of Assad. This would have made them a target of the Sunni al Qaeda NATO death squads eager to create a serious humanitarian crisis just before Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus, the aim being to persuade Annan to accuse Assad of violating the peace and to recommend military intervention and R2PAQ.

But we now have a completely contradictory account of the incident from an eyewitness, which backs up the Syrian government. According to this eyewitness, interviewed for the Der Spiegel article above, a battle did occur between FSA and Syrian military, but that only started in the evening, but then the FSA withdrew late at night suffering casualties, leaving Houla at the mercy of the local militia.

During the demonstrations, as had often happened in recent months, army snipers opened fire on the protesters, an eyewitness told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Several people were killed in the salvos and demonstrators dispersed.

As the afternoon progressed, the FSA unit, under the leadership of a commander named Mahmud, decided to take revenge for the deaths. As night fell, the rebel fighters attacked all regime checkpoints in and around the village. Up to this point, the official government version of events is in accordance with these reports, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Maqdisi saying that on Friday afternoon "from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m." there were attacks from "terrorists" against regime troops stationed there.

So according to this eyewitness, there were attacks on the Syrian government positions by the FSA late in the day. This would agree with the Syrian government narrative. But then this eyewitness says that late at night the FSA withdrew and the militia then entered under cover of darkness and murdered the families during breaks in the shelling.

An eyewitness reported that the FSA unit suffered significant casualties during their offensive before committing a decisive tactical error. Instead of holding their position in the village, Mahmud elected to withdraw his unit, leaving the villagers unprotected.

At roughtly 11:30 p.m., the Syrian military then began its bombardment of the village, firing tank shells and mortars into town. One witness claimed that rockets were used as well.

Most of the casualties occurred during the bombardment, the eyewitness says. But the eyewitness, whose account could not be independently verified, says that 26 victims were killed by regime supporters who entered Houla during breaks in the bombardment. Many of the perpetrators, the witness claims, came from the surrounding villages.

This, of course, completely contradicts everything that eyewitnesses have been telling the likes of Alex Thomson. To them the slaughter took place over at least 7 hours during daylight while the FSA did nothing. Here is another eyewitness saying the FSA did fight the Syrian government late in the day, which would agree with the Syrian government narrative, but then the FSA withdrew late at night leaving Houla at the mercy of the local militia, who according to this eyewitness, showed no mercy and slaughtered the families late at night over a much shorter time period, of say an hour or two.

But can this be verified? The Guardian is reporting the tale of an alleged child survivor who says that the slaughter started at 3am on Saturday.

Speaking to the Guardian, the young survivor said government troops arrived in his district at around 3am on Saturday, several hours after shells started falling on Houla.

[source : Houla massacre survivor tells how his family were slaughtered, The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/28/houla-massacre-survivor-boy-syria, 29/05/2012]

But here is what I quoted from a report by Alex Thomson yesterday.

Mr Griffiths said both the Free Syrian Army (FSA) command in Rastan and civilian eyewitnesses in Houla itself had said the same thing.

Shelling of the town began at about 12.30pm after prayers and lasted about two hours.

Then, from around 3pm, groups of armed civilian militias — known as the Shabiha — began moving house to house and the killings, using knives and firearms, began.

According to both sources speaking independently, it went on for hours, family by family. Both groups say the killings continued until about 2am on Saturday.

[source : Syria Houla massacre: they moved from family to family, killing them one by one, The Daily Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9293588/Syria-Houla-massacre-they-moved-from-family-to-family-killing-them-one-by-one.html, 27/05/2012]

So according to these eyewitnesses the local militia entered Houla at 3pm and slaughtered for 11 hours during the daytime and nighttime, and the killings stopped at 2am. Yet now this anonymous child says, no, that's wrong, the local militia entered at 3am after the shelling stopped a few hours earlier. And the Der Spiegel eyewitness says there was a battle late in the day, and the slaughter was late at night.

But to add the confusion, Rupert Colville of the UN said most of the dead were summarily executed in two incidents.

Syria: The UN human rights office says investigators have concluded that children were among almost 90 people summarily executed in the Syrian area of Houla on Friday, AP reports.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says UN monitors found that fewer than 20 of the 108 people killed died from artillery fire.

Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva that most of the other victims were summarily executed in two separate incidents.

Colville says the conclusions of the UN monitors are corroborated by other sources. He says witnesses blamed pro-government militias for the attacks.

[source : Syria: Annan meets Assad – live updates, The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/middle-east-live/2012/may/29/syria-bashar-al-assad, 29/05/2012]

Who were these witnesses?

But if most of the dead were shot, what were they shot with? How easy is it for a NATO death squad to get hold of and use the same ammo the Syrian military and the militia use?

And still no mention in the NATO media of the attacks at Taldao and al-Shoumarieh.

Are we just being told one side of the story, the Assad-did-it side, while attacks by FSA at Taldao and al-Shoumarieh are being ignored?

Is it possible that this sad episode is one of escalating revenge, with as Lavrov suggested yesterday, both sides complicit, but not in the way I first thought?

Houla was a Sunni stronghold of the FSA. How could militia enter, wearing army fatigues and kill children without the FSA knowing and protecting them? If there were two incidents, when did they occur?

Perhaps there has been something lost in translation of the statements of eyewitnesses. Or perhaps there has been some embellishment or slight exaggeration of the stories. If there were, as Colville said earlier today, two incidents in which the slaughter took place, then why has nobody said so until now? And what did the FSA do after the first incident? Did they attack Taldao and al-Shoumarieh in revenge? But how could they if they were fighting the Syrian government forces all day?

The fog of war (engineered by NATO and absolute monarchies who just gave the FSA $100 million when the peace plan was being implemented, slowly but surely).

If only the UN observers, after they were told what was going down, could have got there to do their job and observe. When were the UN observers told? Did they know about the first slaughter?