Observers in Syria Find Traces of Mass Killing

Qubair was filled with blood and body parts, broken buildings, and the smell of burnt flesh, according to UN observers and journalists who examined the tiny Syrian town yesterday, reports the BBC. "This has basically been a scorched-earth policy by whoever this was; they've killed the people, they've killed the livestock, they’ve left nothing in the village alive," says the BBC's Paul Danahar in an audio report. They did not find corpses from Wednesday's alleged massacre, "but it seemed clear that the perpetrators had hastily sought to conceal what had happened, reinforcing suspicions that the government, by thwarting the monitors' efforts to reach the site on Thursday, had bought time for a cover-up," reports Paul Gladstone in the New York Times.

Seventeen more people died in shelling last night in the town of Deraa, including 10 women, in addition to about 44 others yesterday around Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reports al-Jazeera. Several explosions were heard last night in the Syrian capital, and the road between Damascus and Deraa was reported to be blocked by burning tires. There were also reports of several bombs exploding around the country and up to 25 soldiers being killed. (More Syria stories.)