MOSCOW. June 8 (Interfax) - Russia has condemned massacres in the villages of Qubair and Maarzaf in Syria's Hama province, where about 100 civilians, including about 40 women and children, were reportedly killed.
"It is the second crime of this kind and similar in style to the recent massacre in Homs, a suburb of Houla," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement on Thursday.
"The Syrian government has issued an official statement saying that its forces attacked a terrorist base in that region after signals and a request for help from the local population. A spokesman for the Syrian National Council, an exile opposition group, offers a different interpretation of this event - he lays the whole blame for the incident on the regular army of the Syrian Arab Republic," Lukashevich said.
"We condemn these barbaric acts of violence in the vicinity of the city of Hama in the most resolute way. Those who commissioned and executed them must be put on trial and receive an extremely severe punishment," he said.
"Undoubtedly, this is not the first time that certain forces resort to some of the most brutal and hideous ways to torpedo Annan's plan. We are sure that, in the current difficult situation, the international community must respond to these provocative acts by pooling efforts to support the mission of Kofi Annan, UN and Arab League special envoy, and to ensure the accurate and complete implementation of all points of Annan's plan by the government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the opposition," Lukashevich said.
"It is essential that external players involved in the search for a solution to the Syrian problem should use their channels of pressure on armed opposition units whose recent increasing activity and appeals for foreign intervention run against that plan. That would preclude the tragedies of Houla and Hama," he said.