Syrian troops massacre over 150 villagers, UN intervenes

Syrian troops with tanks and helicopters slaughtered over 150 people in a central village on Thursday, prompting the opposition to call for urgent UN intervention.

Syrian troops with tanks and helicopters slaughtered over 150 people in a central village on Thursday, prompting the opposition to call for urgent UN intervention.

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Reports of the massacre came after UN Security Council ambassadors held their first talks on rival Russian and Western draft resolutions on Syria, with Moscow spurning calls for sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

July 20 is the deadline of the mandate for a UN observer mission to Syria, where activists say more than 17,000 people have died since March 2011. A rebel leader put the toll from Thursday's massacre at over 200.

If confirmed, the killing at Treimsa in Hama would rival the massacre at Houla on May 25, when a pro-Assad militia and government forces were accused of killing 108 people.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' Director Rami Abdel Rahman said the bodies of 30 villagers had been identified after the sustained attack, which brought Thursday's total death toll across Syria to well over 200.

"The army must have got the green light to commit a massacre of this scale, and I bear President Bashar al-Assad responsible for the killing," said Rahman. The Syrian National Council urged the Security Council to pass a binding resolution against Assad's regime.