Syria massacre draws strong condemnation

Dubai: Government troops shelled a string of villages in central Syria before pro-regime gunmen swept through the area, shooting people in the streets and in their homes in attacks that killed 92 people, activists said yesterday.

The assault on Houla, an area northwest of the central city of Homs, is one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 15-month-old uprising.

Britain said on Saturday it was consulting urgently with its allies on "a strong international response."

"We will be calling for an urgent session of the UN Security Council in the coming days," Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement after United Nations monitors confirmed reports of the killings in Houla.

France called for immediate implementation of Kofi Annan's peace plan for Syria yesterday and said it would summon a meeting of the Friends of Syria Group. Condemning the violence on Friday as a "massacre", French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he would talk to UN peace mediator Kofi Annan today. The UN mission chief in Syria Major General Robert Mood yesterday condemned the "brutal tragedy" in Houla, where he said 92 bodies, including those of more than 32 children under the age of 10, had been counted.

"Those using violence for their own agendas will create more instability, more unpredictability and may lead country to civil war," Mood added in remarks to reporters in Damascus.

Activists from the region said regime forces peppered Houla with mortars following a large anti-regime protest on Friday.

After the bombardment, pro-government gunmen raided the villages, killing men on the streets and stabbing women and children in their houses.