Syria: Assad blames “foreign conspiracy” against Syria for “monstrous massacres” perpetrated by his regime

AMMAN, Jordan (LAT) -- A defiant Syrian President Bashar Assad offered no new concessions Sunday from his embattled administration, instead assailing a “foreign conspiracy” against Syria and rejecting any government role in recent “monstrous massacres” across the nation.

“The truth is that even monsters do not do what we saw, especially in the Houla massacre,” Assad said, referring to the house-to-house executions last month of more than 100 people, mostly women and children, in the central township of Houla.

The killings in Houla drew international repudiation of Syria. United Nations officials said evidence pointed to pro-government death squads as the killers. But authorities in Syria blamed the massacre on foreign-backed “terrorists” seeking to frame Syrian security services and undermine a U.N.  peace plan.

“The crisis is not internal,” Assad declared, repeating his government’s long-term assertion that foreign powers are stoking the uprising aimed at ending his rule. “Rather, it is a foreign war with internal tools, and everybody is responsible for defending the homeland.”

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