Twenty-Two Killed in Hama as Syrian Crackdown Intensifies

Rights groups say the Assad regime has committed war crimes as the UN Security Council grapples over a resolution to condemn Syria.

Syrian security forces killed as many as 22 people and wounded 80 yesterday when they began sweeping through the city of Hama, according to Amnesty International. The U.K. and U.S. both called on President Bashar al-Assad to halt operations in Hama, while France has been leading an effort at the UN Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Assad. The crackdown is reminiscent of a brutal massacre in Hama in 1982, when the Syrian military killed as many as 30,000 civilians to curb an uprising in the city, one of Syria's largest. Amnesty also says Assad's Ba'athist regime could have committed war crimes during a siege of the city of Talkalakh in May, where government troops reportedly tortured and killed arrested protesters.