Seven Syrian activists
collaborating with the Avaaz action group were found "executed" in
Homs, while two others, including a foreigner, remain missing, the
non-governmental organization said Thursday.
The group of nine men,
including one foreign paramedic, had set off on foot for Baba Amr on Wednesday
morning after hearing that two foreign journalists were killed in the
flashpoint district of Homs, said Avaaz's Alex Renton.
"They carried a
respirator and medicine," he said.
After losing contact with
them, a member of the network on Wednesday "found seven of them shot dead,
with hands tied behind their backs... just before the entrance to Baba
Amr," the activist told AFP.
He said the respirator was
gone while some medicine was found "strewn across the road."
He declined to reveal the
name or the nationality of the foreign paramedic, but said his embassy had been
alerted.
"Those were civilian
activists, unpaid volunteers," he said, accusing the "Shabiha or
armed forces" of killing the men whose ages ranged between 16 and 24.
Renton said Avaaz been
working on training and equipping volunteers on first aid and citizen
journalism, adding the group has had a network of 200 amateur reporters, but
that many have been arrested or killed.
The group also transports
medical aid from across the border with Lebanon to areas afflicted by violence.
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