UN observers investigate Syria massacre

UN observers investigating a reported mass killing in a Syrian village on Saturday found pools of blood in homes and spent bullets, mortars and artillery shells, adding details to the emerging picture of what anti-regime activists have called one of the deadliest events of Syria's uprising.

Dozens of people have already been buried in a mass grave, and activists are still struggling to determine the total number of people killed in what they say was a violent bombardment by government tanks and helicopters this week.

Some of the emerging details suggested that, rather than the outright bombing of civilians that the opposition has depicted, the violence in Tremseh may have been a lopsided fight between the army pursuing the opposition and activists and locals trying to defend the village. Nearly all of the dead are men, including dozens of armed rebels.

The UN observers said the assault "appeared targeted at specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists."

Running tolls ranged from 103 to 152, including dozens of bodies buried in neighboring villages or burned beyond recognition. The activists expected the number to rise since hundreds of residents remain unaccounted for, and locals believe bodies remained in nearby fields or were thrown into the Orontes River.

An 11-vehicle team of observers went into the central village of Tremseh after receiving confirmation a cease-fire was in place.

The UN team said they could not figure outthe exact number of casualties and would continue their investigation.

Details of the killings remain unclear. The Syrian government says 50 people were killed in Tremseh Thursday when its forces clashed with "armed gangs" that were terrorizing village residents.The regime refers to its opponents as terrorists and gangsters.

On Friday, the United Nations blamed government forces for the Tremseh assault, saying UN observers deployed near the village saw government troops using heavy weaponry and attack helicopters against it.

World leaders have heaped criticism on President Bashar Assad's regime over the Tremseh incident, which was the latest in a series of reported mass killings by regime forces in recent months. Anti-regime activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad's rule began in March 2011. The killings cast new doubt over the international community's efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Syria's crisis.

The prime minister of Turkey once an ally of Assad before turning against him early on in the uprising over the regime's bloody crackdown, blasted Syria's leadership on Saturday over the Tremseh killings.

"These vicious massacres, these attempts at genocide, these inhuman savageries are nothing but the footsteps of a regime that is on its way out," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "Sooner or later, these tyrants with blood on their hands will go and the people of Syria will in the end make them pay."

Suicide bombing nearby

A suicide bomber blew up his car in the closest main town to Tremseh on Saturday, killing three civilians and one security officer, Syria's state news agency said.

SANA said the attacker, who camouflaged the bomb with onions, detonated the explosives in the town of Muhrada.

The anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bomb targeted the local military security headquarters. Both reports said the dead included two women and a child. The Observatory provided a photo of what it said was the bomb site. It showed the facades blown off buildings on opposite sides of a street.

Bombings of security buildings throughout Syria have grown more common as the uprising has turned into a rebel insurgency.

Many worry the attacks reflect the rise of Islamist extremists and possibly al-Qaida in the anti-Assad struggle. Credible claims of responsibility for such attacks are rare, although a shadowy militant group calling itself the Al-Nusra Front has claimed some of them in postings on militant websites. Little is known about the group.

The UN special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, on Friday said he was "shocked and appalled" by the reports of the attack on Tremseh, and condemned the government for using heavy weaponry in populated areas, something it was supposed to have stopped three months ago.

Activists said the army surrounded and shelled the village before storming it with pro-government gunmen who killed people in the streets. They provided videos showing tanks in the town and dozens of dead bodies.

The government said the army intervened while armed terrorists were harassing the town. On Saturday, the state news agency posted photos of rifles, hand grenades, mortars, cell phones and video cameras it said had been found in the town.

Government and activist claims could not be independently verified.