Wed Aug 7, 2013 10:43AM Arabic-language al-Alam News Network reported Monday that the Foreign-backed militants fighting the Syrian government attacked Tal Abyad district of Raqqa governorate in Kurdish-populated northern Syria, killing 330 women and elderly men as well as 120 children." Related Interviews: 'Turkish public against war with Syria' 'US tries to provoke war with Syria' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called on the UN Security Council to "unambiguously" censure the mass killing of Syrian Kurds by foreign-backed radical militants fighting the Damascus government. Reacting to the slaughter of nearly 450 Kurd civilians in northern Syria by al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front militant, Lavrov on Wednesday referred to the move as a "terror attack," insisting that the international community must send a clear and unambiguous message to condemn the killing of civilians in Syria by foreign-sponsored forces that oppose the country's President Bashar al-Assad. Lavrov's remarks came at a press conferene in Moscow following his talks with Ghana's Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh, RT reported Wednesday. "This was not the first report of such a massacre, but the continued violence is going off the scale. Yesterday there was a new terror attack in Damascus. It must be stopped immediately," he added. The Russian foreign minister further expressed outrage at the refusal of "some Security Council members" to condemn atrocities committed by some Syrian opposition forces based on dual standards. "We saw before some Security Council members reluctant to condemn terror attacks in Syria on the grounds that - as cynical as it sounds - those attacks are being carried out by the people fighting against an obsolete regime," Lavrov emphasized. "This position is absolutely unacceptable. No double standards can be applied to terrorism." The top Russian diplomat further reiterated Moscow's call on other organizers of a proposed international conference in Geneva for a peaceful resolution of the Syrian crisis to exert more pressure on the country's opposition forces. "I hope those with influence over the opposition make them realize that they should think about their country and the fate of their people rather than grabbing power," he said. Arabic-language al-Alam News Network reported Monday that the Foreign-backed militants fighting the Syrian government attacked Tal Abyad district of Raqqa governorate in Kurdish-populated northern Syria, killing 330 women and elderly men as well as 120 children. The massacre came a week after al-Nusra militants attacked two Kurdish villages in Aleppo and took around 200 civilians hostage. Fighting between Kurdish militia and al-Qaeda-linked groups has been escalating in north and northeastern Syria in the past weeks after Kurdish fighters, who are opposed to foreign interference in Syria, managed to push back militants from several positions in the area. On July 30, a powerful Kurdish militia said it is mobilizing against al-Qaeda-linked militant groups in northeastern Syria after a Kurdish opposition leader was killed in the area. According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have so far been killed and a total of 7.8 million displaced since the foreign-sponsored unrest in Syria began in 2011.

• published: 20 Aug 2013
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