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I Saw Massacre of Children, Says Defecting Syrian Air Force Officer

(Observer-UK) Martin Chulov - Major Jihad Raslan, a Syrian military officer, has described how he defected to opposition forces after witnessing hundreds of pro-regime militiamen carry out the massacre of more than 100 civilians, among them 49 children and at least 20 women, in the town of Houla one week ago. He had been in Houla on leave when the town was shelled, then invaded by a civilian militia known as the Shabiha, in the worst single atrocity of the Syrian uprising. Raslan said he was in his house when several hundred men whom he knew to be Shabiha members rode into town in cars, army trucks and on motorbikes. "It was very obvious who they were....I saw what they did with my own eyes." "Those victims who were slaughtered are people that I knew well," Raslan said. "These children I knew well, personally. I ate with their families....It was a brutal act by the regime against people who were with the revolution." He said defections had increased sharply in the days following the massacre and he claimed to know of five defectors who were shot dead.
2012-06-04 00:00:00
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