Dozens of rebels killed in Treimsa

Several dozen rebels were among the more than 150 people killed in the central village of Treimsa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday, adding that some victims had been summarily executed.

In what has widely been described as a massacre, with rebels and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad blaming each other, the Britain-based group said “several dozen rebel fighters were among those killed.”

They were killed “during the army’s shelling, raids and the ensuing military operation in the village,” the Britain-based watchdog said. The Observatory reported 30 badly burnt bodies were found, while 17 people were killed while they tried to flee the village.

“Some of the victims were killed with knives,” it said. “Dozens were summarily executed, including people from neighbouring villages. The rest were members of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army,” said Jaafar, an activist at the anti-regime Sham News Network.

He added: “An army convoy was on its way to the region of Hama when it was attacked by the FSA. The army staged a counter-attack with the support of (pro-regime) reinforcements from (nearby) Alawite villages. The FSA resisted for an hour before it was defeated.”

Meanwhile two Syrian brigadier generals and a score of other soldiers crossed into Turkey, bringing the total number of high-ranking defectors to 17 amid escalating violence, Anatolia news agency said yesterday.

And also yesterday, a Russian ship that tried to supply attack helicopters to the Syrian regime amid the bloodshed was reported to have left its port with the same controversial cargo aboard. “The Mi-25 helicopters subject for return to Syria after their repair are currently aboard the Alaed, which is sailing from the port in Murmansk to another port in Russia,” the Rosoboronexport state arms exporter said in a statement.

The MarineTraffic.com website showed the ship’s radar signal coming in off the Norwegian coast on its last reporting date Thursday. The announcement follows vows by Russian officials to keep trying to deliver the weapons to President Bashar al-Assad’s government despite calls on Moscow to join an arms embargo against its last Middle East ally.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the Alaed was planning to supply three repaired attack helicopters and an air defence system to Syria when it was exposed by the US State Department last month.

The 9,000-tonne private cargo was forced to turn back when its British insurer ended up pulling coverage.

The Alaed’s departure from its port comes as Russia sends a flotilla to the Mediterranean to conduct exercises that Moscow has said are not linked to the fighting tearing apart Syria since March 2011. A Russian Baltic Fleet source said two of the destroyer escorts that left port on Thursday could provide protection for the Alaed as it sails.

“They could accompany the Alaed to its destination point – in other words, to one of the ports in Syria. That same Tartus port, for example,” the unnamed Russian navy official told Interfax.