UK Foreign Office condemns massacre

Commenting on reports of a massacre in the Damascus suburb of Darayya on Saturday August 25, Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Alistair Burt, said: "I am deeply concerned by emerging reports of a brutal massacre of civilians in Darayya, in the outskirts of Damascus. This incident is the latest in a long line of human rights violations and abuses committed in Syria. his afternoon I spoke to the UN and Arab League Joint Special Representative, Lakhdar Brahimi, to discuss this latest atrocity and how best we can support his efforts to find a solution to the crisis in Syria." Opposition groups reported the discovery of 300 bodies on the outskirts of Darayya following heavy government bombardment. The dead included men women and children who show evidence of being killed at close range which indicates the possibility that they were executed in line with reports from the Free Syrian Army. The mass deaths in Darayya make Saturday the most bloody day of the Syrian uprising which began in March 2011 and escalated into the widespread use of heavy weaponry from both sides including a reliance on artillery, armour and air support by government forces.