Syria's Assad claims innocence, killings continue

Syrian President Bashar Assad has denied giving orders to kill anti-regime protesters, telling America's ABC that only a "crazy" leader kills his own people.

In a rare interview on the Syrian crisis, Assad claimed most of those killed since the uprising began in March were government troops and his supporters.

The latest UN figures put the death toll at over 4,000 people.

"Most of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government, not the vice versa," Assad said.

"We don't kill our people ... No government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person," ABC's website on Wednesday quoted Assad as saying in a recorded interview.

The interview comes as an additional 16 people were killed on Wednesday, four of whom under torture, according to the opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees (LCC).

The latest killings follow one of the bloodiest episodes in the Syrian uprising, with the LCC reporting 65 people killed over two days.

The death toll is a combined tally from Monday and Tuesday, with 53 killed in the restive Syrian city of Homs alone, according to the LCC.

The bloodletting on Monday left dozens of bodies strewn in the streets of Homs, in a worrying sign that sectarian violence is escalating in the strife-ridden country.

Syrian President Bashar Assad belongs to the minority Alawi sect, an offshoot branch of Shia Islam that is considered heretical by many Sunni Muslims, who form the majority of Syria.

Reports emerged of deadly sectarian attacks on Monday in Homs pitting Alawis against Sunnis.

"It was an insane escalation," activist Mohamed Saleh said.

"There were kidnappings and killings in a mad way. People are afraid to go out of their homes."

Thirty-four of the dead were shot execution-style and their bodies dumped in a public square, according to Saleh and others who monitor the violence, including the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Saleh said all were from the predominantly Sunni district of Jabb al-Jandali.

He said Alawi gunmen had raided the district after an Alawi was found dead earlier. A Homs government official confirmed that 43 bodies were found Monday in Homs.

He asked that his name not be published because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The escalating violence prompted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to urge Syria's opposition during a meeting with the Syrian National Council (SNC) to do more to reassure minorities should Assad's regime fall.

"Obviously, a democratic transition includes more than removing the Assad regime. It means setting Syria on the path of the rule of law and protecting the universal rights of all citizens, regardless of sect or ethnicity or gender," Clinton said sitting opposite six SNC members at a Geneva hotel.

"Syria's minorities have legitimate questions and concerns about their future and that they need to be assured that Syria will be better off under a regime of tolerance and freedom that provides opportunity and respect and dignity on the basis of ... consent rather than the whims of a dictator," she added.

Clinton said she planned to discuss how the group hoped "to counter the regime's divide-and-conquer approach, which pits ethnic and religious groups against one another."

Sections of Syria's minority groups, including Alawis, Christians, and Druze, are concerned that Syria could witness a wave of attacks against minorities if the Assad regime is toppled, as seen in neighboring Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

(Al-Akhbar, AP)