DOZENS OF WOMEN and children have been slaughtered in the conflict-torn Syrian city of Homs, according to opposition activists.
At least 45 bodies were found stabbed and burned after the killings took place last night in the Karm al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, activists working for rebel groups told CNN.
AFP reports that 47 people were killed, including 26 children and 21 women. Some of the victims had had their throats slit, while others had reportedly been mutilated
“Some of the children had been hit with blunt objects on their head, one little girl was mutilated, and some women were raped before being killed,” activist Hadi Abdallah said.
Meanwhile, a doctor working in Homs has told Al-Arabiya that 16 rapes were reported in the city yesterday.
Syrian state news agency SANA blamed “terrorist armed groups” for the killings, stating:
The terrorist armed groups have kidnapped scores of civilians in the City of Homs, central Syria, killed, and mutilated their corpses and filmed them to be shown by media outlets.
The massacre emerged as two Arab countries called for outside military intervention in Syria. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have both urged a military solution, with Saudi foreign minister saying the Syrian regime was “committing a massacre of its own citizens.”
UN envoy Kofi Annan travelled to Damascus over the weekend for two days of talks with president Bashar al-Assad. No resolution was reached, but Annan insisted that he remained optimistic for a diplomatic solution.
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