Syria opposition urges UN action after 'massacre'

Damascus: The opposition Syrian National Council has urged the UN Security Council to act urgently after regime forces "massacred" what it said was more than 110 people in the town of Houla.

The latest flare-up of violence came as Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria who brokered a repeatedly violated ceasefire last month, finalised plans to return to Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 50 civilians, including 13 children, were killed in shelling of Houla, a town in the central province of Homs.

"It was a real massacre that took place and the UN observers are just staying silent," the head of the monitoring group, Rami Abdul Rahman, told AFP in a telephone call.

But the SNC put the figure twice as high. "More than 110 people were killed (half of whom are children) by the Syrian regime's forces. Some of the victims were hit by heavy artillery while others, entire families, were massacred," spokeswoman Basma Kodmani in a statement received early on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said groups fighting President Bashar Al Assad now control "significant" parts of some cities and there is "considerable physical destruction" across the country.

"There is a continuing crisis on the ground, characterised by regular violence, deteriorating humanitarian conditions, human rights violations and continued political confrontation," said the report, obtained by AFP on Friday.

The report is to be debated by the Security Council next week. Annan, who brokered the six-point peace plan, is to travel to Syria "soon" as he continues efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

Diplomats in Geneva said the former UN secretary general would visit Damascus early next week.

On Friday, for the first time since the uprising against President Bashar Al Assad's regime erupted 14 months ago, army tanks rumbled through Aleppo, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

It also said helicopter gunships went into action against rebels, strafing mountain villages in the Latakia area of northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border, wounding at least 20 people.

At least four policemen were killed in clashes with rebels in Kansebba, in the same area, the Observatory added.

Hours after massive anti-regime rallies across Aleppo, tanks deployed in the city, Syria's economic hub, rumbling through the Kalasse and Bustan Al Kasr neighbourhoods after thousands attended a funeral, it said.