Syria's opposition on Monday accused security forces of massacring 47 women and children in the restive city of Homs and urged the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the killings.
Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian activist in the besieged central city, told AFP the bodies of 26 children and 21 women, some with their throats slit and others bearing stab wounds, were found in the Karm el-Zaytoun and Al-Adawiyeh neighbourhoods.
"Some of the children had been hit with blunt objects on their head, one little girl was mutilated and some women were raped before being killed," he said.
The main opposition group, the Syrian National Council (SNC), called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to discuss the "massacre", which it said took place on Sunday.
"The Syrian National Council is making the necessary contacts with all organisations and countries that are friends with the Syrian people for the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting," the SNC said in a statement.
And in a clear reference to Russia and China, the SNC said that allies of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad shared responsibility for the "crimes" committed by his regime.
State television blamed "armed terrorist gangs" for the killings, saying they had kidnapped residents of Homs, killed them and then made video footage of the bodies in an attempt to discredit Syrian forces.
News of the killings came after UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan left Damascus on Sunday without managing to secure an accord to end bloodletting monitors say has claimed more than 8,500 lives since March last year.
Annan departed at the end of a two-day mission during which he said he presented Assad with "concrete proposals" to halt the unrest that has rocked Syria since pro-democracy protesters rose up against his regime on March 15, 2011.
On the ground, more than 150 people -- 61 of them civilians caught in the crossfire -- were killed weekend clashes between armed rebels and regular soldiers in various flashpoint areas, according to figures of rights monitors.
Most of the deaths occurred in an ferocious assault by regime forces against rebel bastions in the northwestern Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that fighting also occurred Sunday in the central city of Hama, the nearby province of Homs, and in the Damascus countryside.
Annan on his first mission to Syria to attempt to secure a halt to the violence, had emerged positive from talks on Sunday with Assad, a follow-up to their first meeting the previous day.
"It's going to be tough, it's going to be difficult, but we have to have hope. I am optimistic," Annan told reporters, while stressing the urgency of finding a solution.
"The situation is so bad and so dangerous that all of us cannot afford to fail," the former UN chief warned, in response to a suggestion that dialogue with the government was futile.
Assad had insisted during their first meeting on Saturday there would be no dialogue until the "terrorist groups" he claims are fomenting the violence are disbanded.
Opposition figures in their meeting with Annan however were adamant that the regime troops pressing the crackdown on dissent must first return to barracks before talks can begin.
Diplomats at the United Nations in New York had expressed pessimism about the prospects for Annan's mission after troops poured into Idlib city, which lies in the province by the same name, late on Saturday just hours after his first meeting with Assad.
Annan told the media conference that he had on Sunday discussed with Assad ways to halt the unrest rocking Syria.
"I presented a set of concrete proposals which would have a real impact on the situation on the ground and which will help launch a process aimed at putting an end to this crisis," the former UN chief said.
"The realistic response is to embrace change and reforms," he added.
After seizing Idlib city on Saturday, troops fanned out into rural areas of the province on Sunday, notably the Jisr al-Shughur district, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory.
"The army is also preparing to launch an offensive against the rebel district of Jabal al-Zawiya," a range of hills close to the Turkish border, where fighters of the Free Syrian Army have been particularly active, he added.
The military crackdown in Idlib came after the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr was stormed on March 1 after a month-long blitz in which hundreds of people died.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clash-over-syria-looms-un-council-053819023.html
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