Bashar al-Assad, the Butcher - NYTimes.com In the latest horrors from Syria, United Nations monitors are investigating a massacre in the hamlet of Qubeir, where some 78 people reportedly were shot, garroted or burned alive. If formally confirmed, it would be the fourth massacre in two weeks. Activists said an assault on the town of Hiffeh that began on Monday included the first use of missiles fired from helicopter gunships since the anti-Assad protests began 16 months ago. Despite his claims that the violence is the work of "terrorists," President Bashar al-Assad has a lot to hide. On Thursday, Syrian troops and pro-government supporters barred the monitors from Qubeir, and the monitors were fired upon. The team was finally permitted to enter the hamlet on Friday, and journalists and a spokeswoman for the monitors reported chilling evidence of multiple killings, including congealed blood and scattered body parts. Villagers said militiamen had trucked bodies away. This is only the latest proof of the failure of the peace plan promoted by Kofi Annan, the special envoy to Syria for the United Nations and the Arab League. All it has done is give Russia, China and some other members of the United Nations Security Council six more weeks to excuse their inaction. On Thursday, Mr. Annan told the Security Council that the savagery will increase without concerted international pressure. He's right. But there is no sign that Russia and China - complicit in more than 12,000 Syrian deaths - are ready to seriously cooperate. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman was still in a fantasy world on Friday, calling on both sides in the conflict to stop the fighting. The Obama administration is making more of an effort to try to bring the Russians on board. A senior American official was in Moscow this week. Washington needs to marshal all of the pressure and shaming it can find. Sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and others are pinching Mr. Assad's cronies. But they are not enough. A United Nations arms embargo - Russia and Iran are both still selling arms to Damascus - and the toughest possible comprehensive economic sanctions are long overdue. So are formal charges against Mr. Assad and his lieutenants for crimes against humanity. With every new atrocity, calls for military action grow. We understand the desire to protect innocents. Intervention would be costly and could widen the war. The best hope of avoiding that is for the Security Council to impose comprehensive punishments - and for Russia, China and Iran to stop enabling Mr. Assad's savagery.