UN in Syria: Victims of Houla attack were executed

A Syrian governmental crackdown is escalating prompting UN peace broker Kofi Annan to speak out and longtime Syrian ally Russia to criticize the regime. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

By Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com

Updated at 8:00 a.m. ET: Most of the 108 victims of the Houla killings in Syria were executed, the United Nations said Tuesday ? an announcement that triggered a coordinated worldwide expulsion of Syrian diplomats.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says its monitors found that fewer than 20 died from artillery fire. It was first thought the majority of the deaths were caused by artillery fire.

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Images of bloodied, young bodies laid out in a shallow grave after Friday's onslaught triggered shock around the world and underlined the failure of a six-week-old U.N. cease-fire plan to stop the violence.

Syrian authorities blamed "terrorists" for the massacre, among the worst carnage in the 14-month-old uprising against Assad, which has cost about 10,000 lives.

In an effort coordinated by Britain, several nations - including Canada, Australia, France and Germany - responded to the U.N. findings by expelling diplomats, as ITV News reported. Syria's charge d'affaires, Ghassan Dalla, the country's topranking diplomat in London, was among those ordered to return to Damascus.

The U.N. statement came as UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan was meeting President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

Clinton condemns Syria massacre: Assad's 'rule by murder' must end

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UNHCR, told the journalists in Geneva that initial investigations suggest fewer than 20 of the victims in the village of Taldou, near Houla, were killed by artillery or tank fire.

"Most of the rest of the victims in Taldou," he told the BBC, "were summarily executed in two separate incidents."

Most of the victims were shot at close range. "At this point it looks like entire families were shot in their houses," Colville was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

He said the conclusions of the U.N. monitors are corroborated by other sources, and that witnesses blamed pro-government militias for the attacks.

UN Security Council condemns Syria massacre that left more than 100 dead

U.S. officials say that dozens of people, including children, were killed by Syrian government forces in the central town of Houla. NBC's Richard Engel reports. Warning: Some of the images are disturbing.

The U.N. Security Council on Sunday unanimously condemned the Syrian government for heavy-weapons attacks on Houla.

"The Security Council condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more in the village of (Houla), near Homs, in attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighborhood," a non-binding statement said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded that those who carried out the killings be held to account.

"The United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Assad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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