Rebels ‘kill seven’ in TV raid

DAMASCUS / GENEVA

Gunmen raided the headquarters of a pro-government Syrian TV station early yesterday, killing three journalists and four security guards, kidnapping others and demolishing buildings. The incidents came on the same day that the U.N. said violence in the country had matched or exceeded levels from before the April ceasefire agreement.

The government blamed terrorists and described the killings as a “massacre.” Reporters who visited the Al-Ikhbariya station’s compound said five portable buildings used for offices and studios had collapsed. Al-Ikhbariya is privately owned but strongly supports President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The violence came as the U.N.’s deputy envoy for Syria, Jean-Marie Guehenno, told the U.N. Human Rights Council that the violence in Syria had “reached or even surpassed” levels seen before the April 12 ceasefire agreement and that a six-point peace plan forged by his boss, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, “is clearly not being implemented.”