Syria Closes Embassy in Canberra

Syria has closed its embassy in Australia, officials said Monday, two months after Canberra expelled the country's top diplomat over one of the worst massacres of the more than year-long conflict.

"The Syrian Embassy in Canberra has closed," the mission said on its website.

Mayer Dabbagh, Syria's honorary consul in Sydney, confirmed the closure but declined to say why the embassy had shut or what had become of its staff, some of whom are reportedly believed to be seeking asylum in Australia.

Australia expelled Syrian charge d'affaires Jawdat Ali, along with one other diplomat, in late May, one day after he was called in to meet officials over the killings of more than 100 people in the town of Houla.

At the time, Foreign Minister Bob Carr described the massacre as "a hideous and brutal crime".

"This is the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion to the Syrian government," Carr said.

A spokesman for Carr said the embassy had decided to close of its own accord.

"Some of the staff are seeking to stay in Australia and that's a matter for immigration," he added.

Australia has repeatedly condemned the regime of Bashar Assad, whose forces are pressing an offensive against rebels in Syria's most populous city of Aleppo, forcing 200,000 civilians to flee.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since the outbreak of the revolt against Assad's rule in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.