50 civilians, including 13 children killed in Syria’s province – activists

PanARMENIAN.Net - President Bashar Assad's forces have killed at least 50 civilians including 13 children in central Syria, activists say, in one of the highest death tolls in one specific area since an internationally brokered cease-fire went into effect last month, Reuters reported.

Syrian troops using tanks, mortars and heavy machine-guns pounded on Friday, May 25 the area of Houla, a region made up of several towns and villages in the province of Homs, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist group said.

Both groups said at least 50 people were killed. The Observatory, which has a network of activists around the country, said the dead included 13 children. It added that about 100 people were wounded.

An amateur video posted online by activists showed more than a dozen bodies lined up inside a room. They included about 10 children who were covered with sheets that only showed their bloodied faces.

"Houla was subjected to a massacre," a man could be heard saying inside the room.

The Observatory said in one incident in Houla, a family of six was killed when their home received a direct hit.

Homs has been among the hardest hit provinces in a government crackdown since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March last year. The U.N. said several weeks ago that 9,000 people have been killed in Syria in the past 15 months. Hundreds more have died since.

Attacks like Friday's, as well as strikes by rebel forces on government troops, have persisted despite the deployment of more than 250 U.N. observers who have fanned out across Syria to monitor a cease-fire brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan.