Damascus: Unknown armed men attacked a Syrian pro-government TV channel, killing at least three people, reports said.
The attack on Ikhbariya TV south of Damascus destroyed the newsroom.
Hours earlier, President Bashar al-Assad said Syria was in “a real state of war”, as US intelligence officials predicted a long, drawn-out struggle.
The UN’s deputy envoy on Syria says the violence has “reached or surpassed” levels before the April ceasefire deal.
Jean-Marie Guehenno told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that “time was running out”.
Commission chairman Paulo Pinheiro told the council that “forces loyal to the government may have been responsible for many of the deaths” but he said his team had been unable to determine who was behind the massacre.
Mr Pinheiro said the perpetrators were from one of three groups: “shabiha” or other local militia from neighbouring villages, perhaps acting with the army; anti-government armoured groups; or foreign groups.
“While the commission could not rule out the possibility of anti-government fighters being responsible for the killing, this was considered very much unlikely,” he said.
Syrian ambassador Faisal Khabbaz Hamoui condemned the meeting as “flagrantly political” and walked out of the hall.
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