Israeli officials alarmed over bloodshed in Syria

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, June 10, led a chorus of Israeli officials expressing outrage over the bloodshed in Syria, accusing Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah militants of complicity in the carnage there, according to The Associated Press.

Israel is anxiously watching developments in the neighboring country, fearing widening instability in the region. With dozens killed in ferocious weekend battles, a string of top Israeli officials sounded alarms over the deteriorating situation in Syria and called for international intervention.

Netanyahu accused Syria's powerful, anti-Israel allies of helping the regime of President Basher Assad to brutally suppress the 15-month-old rebellion.

"This massacre is not executed by the Syrian government alone; it is assisted by Iran and Hezbollah, and the world should realize this is a concentrated axis of evil: Iran, Syria and Hezbollah," Netanyahusaid at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

After keeping quiet in the early months of the Syrian uprising, Israeli leaders have grown increasingly outspoken in their calls for Assad to step aside. Israeli officials, however, adamantly reject suggestions that they are assisting Syrian rebels.

The U.N.'s latest estimate is that 9,000 people have died in Syria's conflict but that is from April and the world body has been unable to update the figure since. Syrian activists put the toll at more than 13,000.