Dozens dead in new Syria massacre

Source: UKPA

Dozens dead in new Syria massacre
(UKPA) – 1 hour ago 
Scores of people have died in a new massacre in the central Hama province of Syria, according to opposition groups.
The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights said "dozens" were killed overnight in Mazraat al-Qubair on the outskirts of Hama, but the group, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, is still documenting names.
The Local Co-ordination Committees group had a far higher death toll, saying more than 78 people were killed, including many women and children. It said pro-government militiamen known as shabiha first shelled the farming area in Mazraat al-Qubair and then went in and killed the residents.
It said some of the dead were stabbed to death while other bodies were burned.
Syria's main opposition group in exile, the Syrian National Council, also said 78 people were killed. It said 35 were from the same family and more than half were women and children. It said the militiamen converged on Qubair from neighbouring pro-regime villages. It said some of the dead were killed execution-style, others were attacked with knives.

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By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press – 4 minutes ago 
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops blocked United Nations observers Thursday from reaching the site of a new mass killing where the opposition claims regime forces slaughtered at least 78 people including women and children, the chief of the U.N. monitoring mission said.
Syria denied the opposition claims as "absolutely baseless." Syrian state TV denied obstructing the observers work and said the monitors had successfully reached Mazraat al-Qubair — a farming area in the central Hama province and site of the latest killings.
The reports came just weeks after more than 100 people were killed in one day in a cluster of villages known as Houla in central Homs province, many of them children and women gunned down in their homes. U.N. investigators blamed pro-government gunmen for at least some of the killings, but the Syrian regime denied responsibility and blamed rebels for the deaths.

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