Bodies of 26 Syrian children, 21 women found in Homs

Dubai: The world woke up to the shocking news that dozens of civilians were killed in Homs on Monday in what opposition groups are calling a "massacre" by forces loyal to President Bashar Al Assad.

Hadi Abdullah, a Syrian activist in Homs, 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 Al Zaytoun and Al Adawiyeh neighbourhoods of the besieged city.

"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 Syrian government confirmed the deaths but blamed them instead on "armed gangs".

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Al Assad to act within the "next few days" on UN-Arab League proposals.

"The Syrian government has failed to fulfil its responsibility to protect its own people and instead has subjected its citizens in several cities to military assault and disproportionate use of force," Ban said.

Meanwhile, UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan whose two-day meeting with Al Assad produced no results, met with Qatari officials including Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani and Foreign Minister Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani.

The meeting came as ex-diplomats and Nobel laureates urged the UN Security Council to stop the violence in Syria in an open letter in the Financial Times.

Singling out Russia, they warned "paralysing" splits in the international community had given the regime a licence to kill.

Meanwhile, Syria said it would pre-emptively withdraw its ambassadors from Europe over fears EU members will expel them.

The US, Britain, Switzerland, Canada and France have already closed their embassies in Damascus.