MANNAM Peace - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges ceasefire in Syria's Qusayr

UN Secretary General Bank-Ki-moon urged the two of the Syrian government and the militants to stop the war for the relief work of the wounded and civilians isolated in the fighting in Qusayr.

Mr.Ban said, "The Syrian government has a responsibility to protect the civilians in the area within a jurisdiction." and he demanded that the both sides, Syrian government forces and the militants let the trapped civilians and the wounded escape the town for the evacuation.

According to a statement, Mr.Ban stressed the both sides to do their utmost to avoid civilians casualties, and warned they would be held accountable for any acts of atrocity carried out against the civilian population of Qusayr.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos and UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay said, “We understand there may also be as many as 1,500 wounded people in urgent need of immediate evacuation for emergency medical treatment, and that the general situation in al-Qusayr is desperate.”

They also said there were reports that civilian neighborhoods continued to be indiscriminately attacked and that other major violations of human rights and international humanitarian law were being committed.

Qusayr, as a strategic point, located on the route between the capital city, Damascus and the coast, which used to be taken by the militants, was recaptured by the Syrian government forces last month backed by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

Rami Abdulrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights(SOHR), an information office reporting the Syrian civil war said, "The battle is continuing in the northern area of Qusayr. The Syrian government forces are increasing their military strength and the militants are mobilizing all what they have to fight against them as well.