Civilian militias in the Syrian town of Houla went from house to house murdering entire families 'one by one' during an eleven hour killing spree, according to sources on the ground.
At least 108 people died during the massacre on Friday, including women and children who were shot and stabbed in their own homes.
The United Nations has condemned the attacks 'in the strongest possible terms', and blamed President Bashar Assad's troops for the artillery and tank shelling of residential areas.
GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING:
'Massacre': Bodies of those killed by Syrian forces in the atrocity are lined up in Houla
Terrible aftermath: A heartbreaking image of children said to have been killed in Houla by Assad's thugs in a still from a video taken by an activist and posted online
Sources told the Daily Telegraph shelling of Houla began at around 12.30PM on Friday and lasted for two hours.
At 3pm groups of armed civilian militias, known as the Shabiha, went from house to house killing entire families in a sickening killing spree that lasted until 2am on Saturday.
Martin Griffiths, the deputy commander of the UN's observer mission to Syria has described the scenes of death and destruction found when he arrived in Houla on Sunday.
He said: 'It's difficult, very difficult. We found one family - a mother and her four children - all of them were dead, the bodies still left there.'
Shelleing of the town began at 12.30, lasting for two hours, before groups of armed civilian militias, known as the Shabiha, went from house to house killing entire families until 2 am on Saturday.
The UN Security Council issued a press statement blaming President Bashar Assad's troops for the artillery and tank shelling of residential areas on Friday.
It also condemned the killings of civilians 'by shooting at close range and by severe physical abuse'.
Shocking images of slaughtered youngsters lying in the town of Houla over the weekend prompted international condemnation of his hardline regime.
The council's statement said the 'outrageous use of force' against civilians violated international law and Syrian government commitments under previous UN resolutions to stop all violence, including the use of heavy weapons in populated areas.
It said 'those responsible for acts of violence must be held accountable', and asked the UN observer mission in Syria and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to investigate the attacks and report back to the council.
Anger: Britain and France have condemned the attack on children and pointed the fingers at Syrian troops
Britain and France had proposed issuing a press statement condemning the attack on civilians and pointing the finger at the Syrian government for Friday's massacre.
But Russia called for an emergency council meeting saying it first wanted a briefing by Gen. Robert Mood, the head of the unarmed UN observer mission.
The massacre in Houla on Friday cast fresh doubts on the ability of an international peace plan put forward by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to end Syria's 14-month-old crisis.
The brutality of the killings became clear in amateur videos posted online that showed scores of bodies, many of them young children, in neat rows and covered with blood and deep wounds.
UN probe: Bodies pictured piled up in Syria, as released by the opposition's Shaam News Network
A later video showed the bodies, wrapped in white sheets, being placed in a sprawling mass grave.
Mood told the Security Council that UN observers at the scene now estimate 108 people were killed in Houla, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters outside the council chamber.
The UN counted 49 children and 34 women among the dead. Activists from the Houla area said the army pounded the villages with artillery and clashed with local rebels after protests Friday.
Some activists said pro-regime thugs later stormed the area, doing the bulk of the killing by gunning down men in the streets and stabbing women and children in their homes.
The Syrian government rejected that narrative Sunday, painting a vastly different picture.
SYRIAN OFFICIALS TO BE BANNED FROM OLYMPICS, SAYS CLEGG
Syrian officials linked to the slaughter of civilians will be barred from visiting London for the Olympics, Nick Clegg said yesterday.
The Deputy Prime Minister said new rules allowed the Home Office to bar anyone suspected of serious human rights abuses from entering the country.
Anyone found to be linked to the ‘revolting, stomach-churning scenes of savagery’ coming out of Syria would not be allowed in, Mr Clegg said.
Speaking to reporters in Damascus, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said Syrian security forces were in their local bases Friday when they were attacked by 'hundreds of heavily armed gunmen' firing mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-tank missiles, staring a nine-hour battle that killed three soldiers and wounded 16.
The soldiers fought back, but didn't leave their bases, he said.
He said: 'No Syrian tank or artillery entered this place where the massacres were committed.
'The security forces did not leave their places because they were in a state of self-defence.'
He blamed the gunmen for what he called a 'terrorist massacre' in Houla and accused the media, Western officials and others of spinning a 'tsunami of lies' to justify foreign intervention in Syria.
Makdissi did not provide videos or other evidence to support his version of events, nor did he give a death toll. He said the government had formed a committee to investigate and share its findings with Annan, who is due to visit Damascus in the coming days.
Throughout the uprising, the government has deployed snipers, troops and thugs to quash protests and shelled opposition areas.
A video released by the UN team in Syria on Sunday showed observers in Houla the day after the attack, meeting with local rebels and watching residents collect more bodies for burial.
It also showed two destroyed armored personnel carriers - suggesting that local rebels put up more of a fight than the activists acknowledged.
Sickening: Throughout the uprising, the government has deployed snipers, troops and thugs to quash protests and shelled opposition areas
Horror: The UN counted 49 children and 34 women among the dead. Activists from the Houla area said the army pounded the villages with artillery and clashed with local rebels after protests Friday
In a letter to the Security Council, Ban said villages in the Houla area have been outside government control but surrounded by a heavy Syrian military presence.
When UN observers visited the area on Saturday, Ban said they saw 85 corpses in a mosque in Taldou and 'observed shotgun wounds and wounds consistent with artillery fire'.
He said 'the patrol also saw artillery and tank shells, as well as fresh tank tracks' and observed that 'many buildings had been destroyed by heavy weapons'.
At UN headquarters, Russia's deputy UN ambassador Alexander Pankin told reporters as he headed into the closed-door Security Council meeting 'there is substantial ground to believe that the majority of those who were killed were either slashed, cut by knives, or executed at point-blank distance'.
'We have to establish whether it was Syrian authorities ... before we agree on something,' he said.
Appalled: Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was 'sickened' by the massacre of children
A press statement is weaker than a presidential statement, which becomes part of the council record, or a legally binding U.N. resolution.
But it must be approved by all 15 members and therefore reflects strong Security Council backing.
Annan's peace plan for Syria, sponsored by the UN and the Arab League, is one of the few points of agreement among world powers about Syria's crisis, which began in March 2011 with protests calling for political change.
As the government violently cracked down on the uprising, many in the opposition took up arms to defend themselves and attack government troops.
The UN put the death toll weeks ago at more than 9,000. Hundreds more have been killed since then.
Daily violence has marred the plan since a cease-fire was supposed to begin April 12. The Houla attack made Friday the deadliest day since the truce was announced, and has cast a shadow over Annan's visit.
In another defiant move, Syria on Sunday denied permission for Annan's deputy to travel to Damascus with his boss, a senior Arab League official said.
The rejection of former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa was intended as a slap to the Arab League, which suspended Syria's membership and approved sanctions against it last year.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Annan's spokesman declined to comment.
The Houla attacks caused outrage among American and international officials that Makdissi's comments Sunday failed to assuage.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he would summon Syria's most senior diplomat in the UK today so the Foreign Office could 'make clear our condemnation of the Syrian regime's actions'.
He added: ‘I think they also shine a light for the whole world on the nature of this conflict, on the oppression and brutality of the regime and the deaths of so many children.
Mr Hague was due to fly to Moscow last night for talks on the crisis with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. He urged Russia to soften its stance, saying: ‘It isn’t in the interests of Russia, it’s not in anyone’s interests, for Syria to descend into an even bloodier situation and into a full-scale civil war.’
Death toll: The United Nations said several weeks ago that 9,000 people had been killed in Syria in the past 15 months. Hundreds more have died since (file photo)
Demonstration: Libyan citizens protest for peace in the southern province of Daraa, last week
‘[That] they are among many hundreds of children who have been tortured, abused or murdered by the Assad regime, again illuminates the type of tyranny that the people of Syria have been experiencing.’
The Syrian government yesterday denied its troops were behind the attack, blaming the killings on ‘hundreds of heavily armed gunmen’ who also attacked soldiers in the area.
Foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said Syria was being subjected to a ‘tsunami of lies’.
‘We categorically deny the responsibility of government forces for the massacre,’ he said.
Mr Hague dismissed the claim, saying: ‘It is a familiar tactic of the Assad regime to blame others for what is happening in their country, to try to get out of responsibility for the scale of death and destruction.’
Kuwait, which currently heads the 22-member Arab League, called for an Arab ministerial meeting to 'take steps to put an end to the oppressive practices against the Syrian people'.
Switzerland's Foreign Ministry urged that an international inquiry be convened, saying the killings 'could constitute a war crime'.
In Paris, the head of the exile Syrian National Council also condemned the killings.
'The kids of Houla are the kids of all of Syria,' Burhan Ghalioun told reporters. 'Killing the kids of Houla is like killing the kids of all of Syria.'
Anti-regime activists scoffed at the government's version of events. One Houla activist said via Skype that the area had at most 300 fighters, but that none had more than rifles and that they often lacked ammunition.
'If we had anti-tank missiles, there would be no tanks left in the area,' said Mohammed.
Activists reported shelling, gunfire and arrest raids in opposition areas throughout the country Sunday as well as clashes between regime forces and rebels in a number of areas.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces killed at least 14 civilians, while rebels killed nine soldiers.
Activist claims could not be independently verified. The Syrian government bars most media from operating in the country.
Annan's plan calls for eventual talks between all sides on a political solution to the crisis.
The U.S. hopes Russia can use its influence with Damascus to press for a political transition similar to that seen in Yemen.
In February, longtime Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh passed power to his deputy in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
U.S. officials say Russia does not oppose a political transition in Syria in theory, but has not agreed to specific terms. ( dailymail.co.uk )
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