MORE BBC MANIPULATION OF HOULA MASSACRE

The BBC have been caught out illegally using a photograph of rows of dead children taken in Iraq in 2003 and said the photo showed the dead of Houla.

Now in an article similar to one I wrote earlier today the BBC has tried to write a timeline of the events in Houla, but missed one crucial element; the attack on al-Shoumarieh (or al-Shumariyeh).

Reports suggest that at about 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT) on Friday, just after midday prayers, soldiers fired on a protest in Taldou in the Houla area to disperse the crowds.

Some accounts say that opposition fighters then attacked the Syrian army position where the firing was coming from.

According to Syria's foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi, "hundreds of gunmen" armed with machine guns, mortars and anti-tank missiles attacked soldiers, killing three.

Activists and eyewitnesses say the Syrian army shelled the town, reportedly at first with tank fire then with mortars, in a sustained bombardment that lasted at least two hours.

...But according to activists and eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch, British broadcaster Channel 4 and others, army shelling paved the way for a concerted ground attack by the Alawite-dominated pro-government militia, the shabiha.

Their reports suggest that men from the shabiha entered peoples houses in army fatigues and either cut their throats or shot them in the head from approximately 16:00 to 01:00 on Saturday morning.

[source : Houla: How a massacre unfolded, BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18233934, 28/05/2012]

The BBC quotes Syrian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Makdissi who referenced al-Shoumarieh but the BBC omit any reference.

Why?

Why is the BBC omitting the attack on al-Shoumarieh (or al-Shumariyeh)?

Why are all NATO media not referencing this attack, even if it is to ridicule the allegation or disprove it?

Take a look at this report from Reuters. It explicitly says that Free Syria Army members attacked Syrian government forces at two roadblocks after a protest had been fired on killing five people, and these attacks by the FSA provoked the shelling.

Opposition activists in Homs said the violence began after Syrian troops and militiamen, stationed at roadblocks that surround Houla, fired heavy machineguns at a demonstration, killing five people.

Free Syrian Army rebels responded by ransacking two army roadblocks, the activists said.

Houla then came under an intense artillery barrage that killed around 15 villagers. Residents say members of Assad's "shabbiha" militia then entered Houla from nearby villages, hacking men, women and children with knives and shooting them at close range.

[source : Syria opposition criticizes U.N. on Houla massacre, Reuters, http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/27/us-syria-houla-idUKBRE84Q0CN20120527, 27/05/2012]

OK. Sounds a reasonable explanation of how it all started. Protest, shooting, retaliation, which prompts shelling.

But as I asked this earlier; If the FSA were there, attacking roadblocks, then where were the FSA as, the FSA alleges, the local militia were moving from house to house for at least 7 hours, possibly 11 hours, stabbing and shooting families?

This Reuters report shows that the FSA were in Houla around the time the shelling began. What happened to them? Where did they go? Why did they attack two roadblocks but put up no resistance to the local militia? According to eyewitnesses the shelling lasted for two hours, after which the local militia began their slaughter of the innocents.

But what were the militia allegedly wearing? THEIR ARMY FATIGUES!

Apparently Houla is Sunni and controlled by the FSA, but surrounded by a few Syrian government positions.

Hadi al-Abdallah, speaking from Homs, said Houla was under the control of the FSA, which meant government troops could not enter the town. Instead, they were launching shells from a distance in a bid to defeat the rebels.

[source : UN confirms 'massacre' of children in Houla, Al Jazeera, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/05/201252616111118780.html, 27/05/2012]

So you tell me, how could local militia wearing army fatigues enter FSA-controlled Houla, with presumably FSA present, and for at least 7 hours slaughter just a few families in cold blood?

It does not make sense.

It does not make sense that the Syrian government or their supporters would slaughter a few families so that the rebels could demand intervention from the likes of NATO.

But war rarely does make sense.

And it is usually the children who suffer.

The report on the investigation by the Syrian government into this will be very interesting reading.