The UN Security Council on Sunday unanimously condemned the killing of innocent people in the Syrian town of Houla

The UN Security Council on Sunday unanimously condemned the killing of innocent people in the Syrian town of 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," the non-binding statement said.

"Such outrageous use of force against civilian population constitutes a violation of applicable international law and of the commitments of the Syrian Government under United Nations Security Council Resolutions," the statement said.

The United Nations believes that at least 108 people were killed in Houla, U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said.

Russia said the "tragic" events in Syria deserve condemnation and called for a U.N. assessment of the violence there.
Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexander Pankin said the circumstances surrounding the massacre were "murky" and rejected the idea that the evidence clearly showed Damascus was guilty.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent the council a letter that appeared to give ammunition to both sides of the Syrian conflict.

He said the observers "viewed the bodies of the dead and confirmed from an examination of ordnance that artillery and tank shells were fired at a residential neighborhood." But Ban also said U.N. monitors observed shotgun wounds on some of the bodies, which could indicate close-range attacks by rebels, as Pankin claimed, or could be the result of follow-up attacks by the army after it stopped shelling.

"While the detailed circumstances are unknown, we can confirm that there has been artillery and mortar shelling," Ban said. "There have also been other forms of violence, including shootings at close range and severe physical abuse."

International mediator Kofi Annan and Ladsous are expected to brief the council on Syria on Wednesday.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton spoke of a "heinous act perpetrated by the Syrian regime against its own civilian population" in a statement on Sunday. U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said in a statement that it could amount to crimes against humanity or other war crimes.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari dismissed the "tsunami of lies" of some permanent envoys, who blamed the Syrian government for the massacre and accused them of trying to mislead the world about Syria's role in the massacre.

"Neither UN observer mission head Maj Gen Robert Mood nor anybody else told the Security Council in the informal session that he would blame the Syrian government forces for what happened."It is really pitiful and regrettable that some members of the council came out just a few minutes after Gen Mood had finished his briefing to mislead you, to tell you lies about what happened," he said.