Fresh Massacre in Homs Claims more than 100 Civilians

Local Editor

More than 100 civilians have been killed in a new "massacre" in the Syrian city of Homs, a watchdog said Thursday, as Russia slammed the United States for blaming deadly blasts at a university campus on the Damascus government. Witnesses said several members of the same family were among those killed, some in fires that raged through their homes and others stabbed or hacked to death. Among the dead were 32 members of the same clan. Homs is the most strategic city in the country's largest province, lying on key trade routes near the borders with Lebanon and Iraq, and with its southwestern areas not far from Damascus. The reported deaths were the latest to emerge from Syria, where twin blasts on Tuesday tore through an Aleppo campus while students were sitting exams. At least 87 people were killed in one of the bloodiest attacks of the 22-month conflict committed by the armed opposition groups, in a city that has suffered some $2.5 billion in damage in six months of bitter conflict, according to Aleppo's governor. The conflict has sent some 600,000 people fleeing the country, most of them to neighboring countries, according to the UN. Russia Hits out at US for Blaming Syria Regime for Blasts   Local Editor   Russia slammed the United States on Thursday for "blasphemous" accusations blaming this week's blasts in the city of Aleppo on the Syrian regime. "Yesterday I saw a semi-neutral report on CNN that it was not ruled out that this terrorist act had been staged by the government forces themselves," Lavrov said in the Tajik capital Dushanbe. "I cannot imagine anything more blasphemous." Two blasts on Tuesday tore through an Aleppo campus while students were writing exams, killing at least 87 people. In a statement on Wednesday, the Russian foreign ministry blamed "terrorists for the merciless bloody provocation." It said the explosions were "the terrorists' revenge for the significant losses sustained in their confrontation with government forces." The United States on Wednesday said the blasts were caused by the “regime unleashing air strikes on the university buildings.” "The United States is appalled and saddened by the Syrian regime's deadly attack yesterday on the University of Aleppo," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. Lavrov also reiterated Thursday Russia's stance that Moscow was against referring Syria to the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes accusations. "We should answer the question: what is more important for us?" Russia's top diplomat told reporters. "If the most important for us is to punish someone, to condemn someone, to put someone on trial, then it's one logic." "If the most important is to stop the violence, then I would focus on the actions aimed at this. Everything else can wait."

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