In president's first remarks on last week's widely condemned killings, he says 'not even monsters' would commit such a crime
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has insisted his government had nothing to do with the Houla massacre, saying not even "monsters" would commit such an ugly crime.
The speech on Sunday were Assad's first comments on the killings. As in other pronouncements, he claimed terrorists were behind the country's uprising.
More than 100 people were killed in Syria's central region of Houla last week, nearly half of them children. The opposition and the government have exchanged accusations over the deaths, each blaming the other.
UN investigators said there were strong suspicions that pro-regime gunmen were responsible for at least some of the killings.
Assad said his country was facing a "real war," warning that he would not be lenient with the terrorists he blamed for the unrest. "We have to fight terrorism for the country to heal," he told parliament in his first speech since January. "We will not be lenient. We will be forgiving only for those who renounce terrorism."
The president's remarks have defied mounting international condemnation of his regime's crackdown on the opposition. He blamed the crisis on outside forces and said the country was experiencing its most critical stage since the end of colonialism.
His message echoed previous speeches in which he blamed terrorists and foreign extremists for the uprising and vowed to defend national security.
The revolt began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests, but a ferocious government crackdown led many in the opposition to take up arms. The conflict has since escalated into an armed insurgency.
"A battle was forced upon us, and the result was this bloodshed that we are seeing," Assad said.
Activists estimate up to 13,000 people have died in the violence. A year after the revolt began, the UN put the toll at 9,000, but hundreds more have died since.
Syria has long faced international isolation, but the Houla massacre has brought a new urgency to calls to end the crisis. A ceasefire plan brokered by the UN international envoy, Kofi Annan, is routinely violated by both sides. Fears have also risen that the violence could spread and provoke a regional conflagration.