Houla massacre 'by armed gangs', claims foreign ministry

The Syrian government has warned that last Friday's Houla massacre was part of an effort to start a civil war.

At a news conference in Damascus, the head of the Syrian government's commission of enquiry into the Houla massacre of 25 May, General Qassem Jamal Suleiman, said that "armed groups" carried out the killings to trigger external intervention.