Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Official: UN deeply concerned about reports of attack in Hama, Syria; unable to verify what happened - @AJELive

Kieran Dwyer, the acting chief of the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations told Al Jazeera:

Dwyer said his offices have seen the reports in the media of the attack on a village in Hama province. The UN officials are deeply concerned. But since it is late at night in Syria, they are unable to verify what happened. The UN is waiting for updates from monitors on the ground. The observer teams can’t move tonight. As soon as dawn breaks in Syria, UN monitors will head to the affected region to investigate.

Protests in Syria have escalated into what some are calling a burgeoning civil war, and the United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March last year. The government blames "terrorists" and "armed gangs" for the unrest and says more than 2,500 members of its security forces have been killed.